
Class 



Book 



COPYRfGHT DEPC61T 



The Scarlet Life 
0' DAWSON 




Personal Experiences and Observations 

b> the Author 

LA BELLE BROOKS-VINCENT 



THE 



Scarlet Life of Dawson 



AND THE 



Roseate Dawn of Nome 



ILLUSTRATED 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS OF THE 
AUTHOR 

LA BELLE BROOKS -VINCENT 



Copyrighted by M. R. Mayor, A. D. 1900, in the United States, 
in England and in all Foreign Countries 



- 1 



rjTVVO COPIES 



HECElViiO, 






Library of CeBgpet% 
56787 Office of the 

APR 1 1 1800 

8egl«t«r of Copyrtghtft 




Parka of reindeer skin with fur cap and reindeer skin fur boots as worn 
on xT; trTp doi; the Yukon to Forty Mile with a dog team In ^^ J^^^^^- 



NM n.i906^/aa 






cMr^ 



INTRODUCTORY. 



It can't The life of the Yukon is an untold story, and an unsolved 

be told. mystery, despite the fact that some of the brightest minds 

and most deserving writers of the day have passed this way, and have 
written of this strange life. Reports have gone out differing so widely as 
to condemn all. Invariably the new-comer finds so much that is unlike 
what he has read or expected as to cause him to decide, with the aid of 
man's natural prejudice in favor of his own opinions, that he only has seen 
aright. Each sees a different phase of it, or judges from a different 
standpoint 

Only one The life of Dawson and of Nome, from its origin and 

scarlet life. environment, is necessarily a unique development and 
peculiar to itself. It is different, in every detail, from other life. There 
are no commonplaces in this life; it is tragedy, comedy, farce and vice, 
varied by the fascinating and inspiring influence of single examples of a 
staunch fidelity and honor amid fearful temptations, or an exquisitely 
beautiful pathos in instances of undeserved, or unexpected, suffering and 
disappointment. An honest writer will, at the outset, designate his work 
as simply some impressions of the life of the Northland, admitting that 
much must be left untold, and yielding to various writers other impressions 
different from, but possible as true, as his own. 

All who have witnessed the mighty contagion of greed which possessed 
men, sending thousands of them hither in the great gold stampede of '97 
and '98 to a dearth of unstaked ground and to wide-open gambling houses 
and dance-halls, and to the long rows of red-curtained abodes of its demi- 
monde, which here await to absorb both Cheechargo surplus and the 
golden fortune of the miners, will admit the fitness of this title, "The 
Scarlet Life." 

Good but Some good men and women are here whose lives are spent 

unavailing. in saintly devotion, and noble work of charity; and most 

impressive of all, is the vast, silent colony up on the mountain-side, just 
above the sound of revelry and the dark passes of crime. 
it's a Yet it is true that no good man or woman can breathe 

contagion. j^j^jg tainted atmosphere and be again quite what he was 

before. " The wages of sin is death," and even enough experience of this 
life to be called a knowledge of its sin, is a destroying influence. From a 



prevalence of the life of evil a strength is accrued in an atmosphere of 
vice, and the magnetic forces about the good are menaced and weakened. 
The combined magnetic force of all the good and pure of Dawson is so 
weak, as compared with the combined magnetic force of all the evil, as to 
be almost nil. The condition is exactly contrary to that in localities out- 
side, in which the population is largely of good moral men and women 
whose magnetic force for good tends to subdue, and weaken, the combined 
evil force of the few who seek a life of vice Dawson affords an illustra- 
tion of a large population, living under conditions of a predominating evi] 
atmosphere, that is both aggressive and menacing, 

Sad but Accept this work, kind reader, as a study in the purple 

true. scarlet shades of social life. That its chapters are facts, 

or the utterable parts of facts, and that its stories are founded on facts, 
or are easily possible as an outgrowth of this life, is pity to those who 
have been whirled in its vortex of passion and license, and a most solemn 
warning to those who are tempted to a contact with such life. The un- 
enviable record of Paris in its extreme of vice must be yielded; but there 
with all the glamour of beauty, of music and of artistic surroundings, vice 
is softened to sweeter measures and the soul is wooed to a forgetfulness of 
its lost condition. 

The scarlet life of Dawson, and of Nome, has no gilded 
lights from a near contact with the civilized world ; oo golden 
tints from the hidden recesses of neighbouring art galleries; no perfumed 
incense from the shadows of great cathedrals. It is naked vice. The bed- 
rock of vice laid bare; the pay streak located and every pan a record 
breaker. This life may be recounted in a light and frivolous way for the 
amusement of a distant public, but its reality should be dreaded and 
avoided. It is the part of wisdom to keep away from centers of vice, and 
from this worst of all centers. The combined influence of a number of 
persons who come here actuated by a spirit of greed, determined to scruple 
at nothing to satisfy that base passion, generates a life of greed to which 
physical and mental strength succumbs. Here the good are contaminated, 
the careless become vicious the vicious mad. Selfishness and GrSed guard 
the entering gateways. Suicide, Murder and black Despair lurk in the 
shadows of the exits. Justice is in mourning, and Liberty a ragged men- 
dicant. 

I , .„ If the life of the trail, of the camp, and of the mines on 

the Great Yukon and the greater Behring Sea, were as 

are the paths of city parks and the homes of civilization, its language 



might be the same; but since it is a different life, a different language, to 
some extent, has been evolved; and to write or speak of the life of the 
Northland without a natural use of its language, would be to substitute a 
lexicon for simple narrative. The life of the Northland is told, not made, 
by authors. To add a glamour of poetry and romance would be to put a 
wreath of orange blossoms on a Death's head, and to twine its cross-bones 
with roses. A display of fine language and of rhetoric would not reveal 
the subject. 

They're yet It may be mentioned that people in the Northland are 

the same. seldom known there by their right names, — as Mr. J. L, 

Brown, Mr. John E. Harris, etc. Unless some nick-name is applied, the 
most important personages become, in common conversation, " Ogilvie," 
"Brown" "Barnett," "Healy," ''Jo Ladue," etc. As the next grade of 
familiarity: — "Old man Harper," "Missouri Jackson," "Colorado Eames," 
etc. Then follows the nick-names:— Big Alex, Nigger Jim, Pete the Kicker, 
Poker-chip Joe, Diamond-tooth Gertie, Dirty-faced Maud, Old By-Mighty, 
Muck-a-Luck Sue, Alabama Joe, Hungry Bill, Skookum Jim, The Swede, 
The Greek, The Dago, Shortie, Eveline, Flossie and Lillie. 

If I am compelled occasionally to unveil some phase of life 
that I would wish did not exist, but which I know does exist, 
and is a menace to many, it is not to teach and preach and moralize; but 
to present, as its sequence, the condition that surely results, and cannot 
fail to discourage any who would try for an independent solution of the 
matter. Vice is found in life amid the cosmopolitan crowd, amid excite- 
ment, in extreme dissipation, in familiar places and in familiar language, 
and so is consistently written. The vice of civilization is not this extreme 
of vice, but this extreme of vice had its beginning, and gathered force, as 
it swept over civilized lands to center in the Scarlet Life of Dawson and of 
Nome. The result may be reported back to civilization, to forewarn as to 
the consequence of a concentration of the forces of greed and selfishness. 

What Books are written for classes. Truth is for the discrimin- 

message. ating. Wit and humor for the unwary. Myths and fables 
for the credulous. Sophistry and fads for the imitative, and conventional. 
Creeds, maxims and texts for those whose aspirations exceed their in- 
dustry. Peculiar works are for peculiar people. 



NOME. 

They The world loves the glitter of gold, and delights in stories 

stampede. of treasure finds, of treasure stores, of treasure ships; in 
mysteries of lost or hurried wealth, and of possible, undiscovered gold. 
The prosperous miner dreams of new discoveries. His one ambition is of 
the one ideal, supreme discovery of the Mother Lode, the supposed source 
of all gold deposits. People dream and hope, and in their dreaming and 
hoping, are often led to grievous sacrifice, and to woeful disappointments, 
from not making a just estimate of conditions, as was the case in the great 
gold stampede to the Klondyke of '97 and '98. 

They The source of reports is first to be considered. All re- 

exaggerate, ports of discoveries of gold originate with the miners 
who are the discoverers and owners of claims. From personal investigation 
and observation, I would estimate that 99 per cent of those who stake 
claims desire to sell them rather than to work them. This often gives rise 
to exaggerated reports as to their value, especially in a remote region like 
Alaska. 

They The coast cities of the United States are interested in creat- 

advertise. j^g ^ boom in Alaska and a stampede thither, as it brings 
trade and causes prosperity. The stampeder does not stop to consider the 
benefit it is to a city to furnish him his outfit and transportation, at a cost 
of several hundred dollars, but the coast towns and transportation com- 
panies are acutely conscious of the fact that a large number of stampeders 
will greatly benefit them. It is a well known fact that, at the time of the 
Klondyke boom, Seattle was in a very uncertain state financially, but she 
recovered, and prospered, and expanded, under the influence of the boom. 
It cost thirty millions dollars to outfit the Klondyke stampede, and as much 
more has been expended since, which is more gold than the Klondyke has 
yet produced. It is to be regretted that the stampede was due largely to 
exaggerated reports, circulated intentionally for the purpose of inducing 
travel. On another page is a sample of the boom articles published to in- 
duce the Kotzebue Sound stampede; two thousand men went to Kotzebue, 
enduring awful privations and suffering, hundreds died of scurvy, and the 
remnant of the party managed to get back to civilization, some were 
brought back at the expense of the government, broken in health and dis- 
heartened. No gold was found in Kotzebue, not even a nugget as big as a 
pin-head. 




1. Nome. Main street— every building a saloon, save one small shop. 

2. Nome. Looking across Snake River. 

3. Beach scene at Nome. 




The 



" Jane Gray," which sailed for Kotzebue 
Sound in 1898. 



When a few hundi-ed miles out from Seattle, the ship sank and of all 
on board but four survived. After extensive litigation and notwithstand- 
ing the total loss of a valuable cargo and a great many lives the S. S. Com- 
pany was only held responsible in the amount which they received for 
freight and passage. 



9 

Unwritten The terrible suffering and loss of property and life conse- 
horrors. quent upon the Klondyke stampede will never be told. It is 

written in abandoned outfits from Edmonton to the Arctic, from the Stickeen 
River to the Hootalinqua, and on the bed-rock of the Yukon in its entire 
length, — in the lonely graves along the routes and in the extensive burial 
places at Dawson, and the numerous graves at Nome. The Atlin boom 
followed the stampede to the Klondyke. I was told by a claim owner, who 
went there in 1899, over the ice, that the placer mines were not valuable, 
and that a few slightly prospected quartz ledges are the only resources of 
the place. The camp is deserted. 

A thrice This year it is Cape Nome. When thirty thousand people 

told Tale. j^g^yg outfitted, have paid their fare to Nome, and have re- 
turned sadder but wiser, then there will be great discoveries in Siberia. 
Greed's representatives will attend to it that reports are circulated from 
West to East, and even to foreign lands. 

The story In the winter of '97-'98 I sold my property in the 

®' ®"® Middle States, removing to the Pacific Coast. Not 

finding investments that suited me for my idle money, I decided to send an 
outfit consisting of food supplies, machinery, boilers, engines, steam pipe» 
steam hose fittings, hardware and tools to Dawson, via St. Michaels. With 
the assistance of a hired guide and a boatman, I then went to Dawson, via 
the Chilkoot Pass, and on down the Yukon in my own small boat. 

Scenes of The trip was accomplished safely, and proved a reve- 

beauty lation of picturesque nature in its wonderful pano- 

rama of scenic beauty and grandeur. I continued my travels from Dawson 
up the Klondyke, 12 miles to Hunker Creek, 20 miles by Hunker Creek to 
the top of the Great Dome, and on down Dominion Creek, returning after a 
few days over the Great Dome and down Bonanza Creek to Eldorado, the 
Klondyke and to Dawson. I walked these distances with hired guides pay- 
ing $60.00 expenses for the round trip to Dominion and transportation of 
blankets and food necessary. 

I could It was my original intention to sell my property and 

not leave return to civilization before navigation closed, but as 

my outfit did not reach Dawson until Sept. 12th, it was impossible to do 8o> 
and I found that to leave the country and trust to others to transact busi- 
ness, was impossible, owing to the chaotic condition of business and a lack 
of means to recognize reputable business firms. 



10 

I had a valuable salable outfit. Parts of it (fittings, condensed milk, 
butter, sugar, etc.) were worth 600%, 1000% and 2500% more than the 
original cost. Machinery was in great demand and was scarce in the mar- 
ket, and could not be brought in from outside before the following summer. 
I had invested $25,000 in outside money, and at this time my holdings were 
well worth $40,000. 

I was advised, by conservative business men, to place the machinery in 
operation before selling it. 

My first I entered into an agreement with a Mining Broker, 

mistake. ^j^q represented himself to be the owner of one hun- 

dred valuable claims, and of abundant financial resources. He was to buy 
valuable claims, paying ^ or J of their value down, and secure contracts 
from owners providing for the payment of the balance ''on bedrock ", or 
out of the proceeds of the mine. I agreed to place my mining plants in 
operation, and to devote the proceeds of the mines to the payment of the 
balance due, until all was paid, when I became owner of ^ of what re- 
mained of the mines. I believed that self-interest would prevent the 
broker from buying any but property that was really valuable, and at as 
low a price as possible. 

By the bedrock proposition the owner was practically guaranteeing the 
value of the mine as to his own claim for the^balance, which is never done 
when there is any doubt as to the extent of the pay. I retained the right 
to control the work and to sell my interest when opportunity occured. 

He was My estimate of the situation was wrong from a false 

not rich promise. The broker had neither money nor valuable 

claims. He at once engaged in a swindling and bunko operation seldom 
equaled in business enterprises. It was an act of folly, prompted by van- 
ity, on the part of the broker, but was pursued maliciously to compel an 
awful sacrifice and suflfering to others, which the broker was finally unable 
to control to his own profit. 

He approached mine owners, and, by inflating prices, assured them that 
he owned my five mining plants, and would soon own every plant in the 
country. He induced them to sign contracts, crediting him with a cash 
payment, in one case of $5,000, in another case of $4,000, and of various 
lesser amounts. To do this he had, in most cases, incorporated a clause 
in their contract permitting them to receive wages for themselves, or a 
representative, from $1.50 to $2.00 per hour, with no limit as to the num- 
ber of hours a day, or the value of labor rendered, until they were paid. 



11 

But he Before the work was well under way, the broker de- 

was vain manded that I transfer my outfit to him. He at- 

tempted to compel me to do so, and tried to menace me in every way 

possible. I had employed as manager a machinist. A , whom I believed 

to be competent, I gave orders that expenses should be limited at the out- 
set, by allowing only necessary work. I never knew whether the broker 
planned with an employee, or whether a part, or all, of the men united in 
dishonest effort, or whether a large amount of unnecessary work was done, 
without my knowledge, to create a labor bill of $6,000 in less than a 
month. I could see no reason for expenses to exceed $2,500 or $3,000 at 
most. I had hired the men by express agreement to take their pay at the 
clean-up. 

I sold my outfit, but subject to amicable settlement and a transfer of 
my contracts to the new owner, who was engaged in litigation, involving a 
vast amount of property, owned by absent capitalists whom he was repre- 
senting, and against whose interests a vicious attack was being made. 
And he My attorney advised me that my only safety lay in ob- 

knew best. taining an annulment of my contract with my part- 

ner, the broker, which I did, but only when the broker became convinced 
that he could not obtain possession and control of my outfit by his present 
efforts. 

I consented to lose the value of the labor performed, which I believed 
to be from $2,000 to $3,000. For some reason I could not get possession 
of the time book, which was retained by my employees, and I never after- 
wards succeeded in getting it. Other owners of valuable claims informed 
me that they would be glad to have me remove my machinery to their < laims 
and work by my present plan, or by the lease system, without a cash pay- 
ment on the property. 

I signed the agreement of dissolution, whereby the broker took from me 
the result of labor performed by the men, and for which it was soon proved 
they claimed as wages the amount of $6,000. 

I fondly I believed that I was free from the persecutions of 

hoped. ^I^g broker, but was disappointed, as I soon discovered 

that he had other designs. As soon as the dissolution agreement was 
signed, he started with a fast dog team to Dominion Creek, where my em- 
ployees were in camp. He called the men together and harangued them 
in a most venomous attack upon me, showing what some of the men desig- 
nated as a spurious contract when afterwards shown my genuine contracts. 
He incited the men to strike for their wages. 



12 

But hoped When he had finished his harangue, the utmost con. 

in vain. fusion prevailed in the camp. The broker offered to 

champion the cause of the men— offered them his office as a meeting place, 
and told them to proceed at once to attach my outfit and he would buy the 
settlement claims. The men threatened the life of the time-keeper to com- 
pel him to work all night to give time checks, upon receiving which they 
stampeded to Dawson, 

He had A lawyer, whom I will call Grillem, exacted of fifteen of 

their claims. ^^^ ^^^ ^n irrevocable authority to settle their claims. 

Suit was brought under the Master and Servants' Act, and although the 
men admitted their agreement to receive their pay in the clean-up, and the 
new owner offered to guarantee their wages and make it a claim against 
his property and private income, the magistrate rendered judgment for the 
amounts demanded, and, if not paid in from five to flteen days, imprison- 
ment in jail at the rate of seven hours in prison for every hour the laborer 
worked without pay There was a panic in the money market at the time* 
and I could not raise $6,000 on short notice. 

He saw My attorney, comprehending the almost sure chance 

no cliance ^f imprisonment for me, and the reckless destruction 

of my outfit by attachment and sale, advised me make a secret flight to the 
American side. 

He believed if I escaped, and they could not put me in prison, that the 
men would make a reasonable settlement, and would perhaps continue their 
work on an adjoining claim under the new owner. They would have my 
outfit in their possession as security, and the claim was valuable and sure to 
produce large profit. 

And so I At midnight, January 26th, I started with a dog team 

^'®*'* and driver, and with but $200, on a wild ride down 

the Yukon. I traveled continuously twenty-two hours, when I was com- 
pelled to rest at Forty-mile Post, fifty-five miles below Dawson. 

And they At 4 a. m. Corporal M of the N. W. M. P. come 

came too ^q arrest me. He had a distress warrant on behalf 

of a labor claimant, and without demanding the money, arrested me. He 
afterwards said that by paying about $300 he would release me. I did not 
have that amount. The reason for my lack of ready money is explained 
under another heading. 
They charged When the Yukon British officials issued an order for 

no crime. ^y arrest, and detailed Corporal M and a 

driver with a team of dogs to go down the Yukon with all speed and bring 



13 

me back, no crime was charged against me. The cause was a labor bill of 
$100. My outfit was in Dawson; the most cursory examination of the 
premises about my cabin could not but have revealed valuable property- 
Si, 500 worth of wool was piled against one side of my cabin. Several 
hundred feet of iron pipe, worth $1,000, and other machinery were there. 
I had nearly $2,000 worth of food supplies in my cache, and five mining 
plants out on the creeks. It was not charged that I was removing my 
possessions, yet I was apprehended and arrested as a criminal. I was 
standing near the dining-table of a bunk-house near Forty-mile when the 
officer approached me and laid his finger upon my shoulder saying, "I arres*- 
you in the name of Her Majesty," 

The debtor's I was taken to the barracks a prisoner. I was de 

prison. tained there one day and was then taken back to 

Dawson to the debtor's prison, which is the common jail. 1 was taken into 
the guard-room amid a crowd of soldiers and policemen, where I was com- 
pelled to wait six hours. Two gentlemen, at the request of my attorney* 
went to the Dawson jail to stand before its officials and sign necessary 
bonds to the amount of $128, in order that I might be released from jail. 
As I walked out of the jail and along the streets of Dawson, people stared. 
They knew I had been arrested. It had been told upon the streets during 
the afternoon that I was in the jail, and now I seemed to them a different 
being. The mere fact of arrest and imprisonment implies a stigma. An 
outrage against an innocent person inspires a fear in others as to possibil- 
ities for themselves at some future time; hence people who had been my 
friends seemed afraid to speak to me. I had fasted fourteen hours I ate 

a light supper with a friend. A gentlemen offered to 
formal escort me home, as it was night. As soon as we 

reached the street he asked me to go down to the 
lower trail on the Yukon ice. This wounded me deeply, as I perceived that 
he did not wish to pass along the lighted street with me, so lately released 
from prison. These evidences of an awful reality of the injusti e of arrest 
and imprisonment which I had suffered, were a bitter anguish. I soon 
reached my cabin, to find it dismantled — every thing had been removed* 
leaving only empty tin cans, and broken boards and papers lying about. 

My friend had "urgent business," and left hastily. My 

* robe had been brought from the prison, and there, 

amid the dirt and litter of the place and in utmost desolation, I laid down 

on the floor upon my robe for that night. It was a chill and a horror made 

for me by enforcement of the British law. 



14 

With mornins: came hunger and a faintness and weariness. I had no 
food excepting a few pieces of pilot bread and some tea. 

I went out upon the street and tried to conciliate my 
They owned my former employees. These men had not been working 
a long season so that they needed their money. I 
I had refused to hire any but men having outfits to last until the time of 
the clean-up; — the man who had me arrested, claiming the $100, had worked 
but ten days. 

If I had been hiring men to be paid each week their wages would have 
been but $5 to $6 per day at most 

When this man demanded his wages from me, before bringing suit, he 
shook his fist in my face, with the words, " Say, will you pay me, will you ? '' 
I went to the Magistrate who had sentenced me to 
He heeded not. ^^.^^^ ^^^ explained that I had ample means and 
would soon settle the debts, even though they were unjust, and the pay roll 
evidently inflated. My attorney also made a statement at length, showing 
there were assets to pay $7 for every dollar of debt claimed. He asked 
the Magistrate to avert such sacrifice, but was refused. The Magistrate 
would not modify the jail sentence. 

The workmen were brutal in their demands. The lawyers secured more 
warrants for my arrest, at the same time demanding that I surrender every 
thing I had. I consented to do so. They refused to withdraw the order for 
my arrest while I went down to the A. C. Co.'s office building to sign the 

bills of sale. 

On the evening of February 18th, 1898, I went along the 
They glared. ^^.^ ^^^^^^ ^^ Dawson and up to the 2nd floor of the A. C. 
Building. I waited on the landing. My former employees were standing 
about the door of a lawyer, whom I will call Mill, who was now directing 
the settlement. The men were grouped together and they looked at me 
sullenly. 

Mill came out of his office and made his way through the crowd, passing 
to me the bill of sale. I had thought they could not possibly secure a com- 
plete list of my extensive outfit. To my dismay, I saw they had every item. 
I said, " Mill, how could you learn enough about my outfit to make this 
complete list?" He answered, "Oh we got that from your Manager A." — 
Here was a new treachery. My Manager, who was presenting a bill of 
$1,165 for his services during a little more than a month, had used the 
knowledge which he had of ray outfit to make it possible for these men to 
extort from me all that I had. It was then brought to my notice that three 
men had refused to join with the others in their persecutions. 



15 

Unjust to I said to Mill that since they were taking all I had 

fellow laborers. j^j^gy ^lyg^ include the claims of the three men, 
amounting to $300. Mill answered, "But the boys will not stand any 
more." I replied that I would not complete the settlement unless the 
claims of the three men were paid with the others. He returned to the 
office and soon came back to say they would allow 50% of the claims. I 
refused to complete the settlement on that basis. It was plain they 
intended to take from me all I had, but when I saw they would take unfair 
advantage of three honorable men of their number. I was incensed beyond 
endurance. In the excitement of the moment I said, "You have taken 
from me my Aeolian Grand, my food, my wood; I have only my clothing 
left and these three half dollars, but poor as I am, I am able to give to 
you." I threw the half dollars f 01 cibly among them, say- 
them men ^°^' "Take these — buy yourselves honor — buy decency — 

buy something to make you worthy of the name of men, 
whose form you wear— give some to Mill — give a large amount to Grillem, 
and all the rest to my trusted Manager, A — ." Mill went into his office 
and soon returned, saying they would pay the claim of the three men. I 
signed the bill of sale, resigning my entire possessions. A 
the orice ™^^ ^^*^ ^^^ $3,000 in money received the bill of sale- 

He gave $1,500, and my food supplies, to pay Grillem's 
fifteen men, which was nearly $400 in excess of their claims at their own 
invoice price of the food supplies, and their own time list as to labor- 
Another $1,500, with my Aeolian Grand and music, paid the rest of the 
men. (The Aeolian Grand with the music I had was worth $1,000 at the 
cost price in Chicago, with freight to Dawson added.) 

The five mining plants, my surplus of hardware and fittings, $1,500 
worth of wood, an Ingersoll Drill a centrifugal pump, a blacksmith outfit 
with tools, an electric light plant, quicksilver, blasting powder, a patent 
Little Water Gold Washer, and various other articles of value, became the 
property of unknown persons. Sacrificed for debts that were not bpna fide 
as to amounts. The true amounts were based upon an agreement as to 
price, with a privilege of time until the clean-up to pay. None of the labor 
debts were due and there was no sale under the attachments. 

There were orders for my arrest as a debtor, and for 
the carrying out of sentences of " 15 days with hard 
labor," "30 days with hard labor." The aggregate of the sentences of 
imprisonment with hard labor would have been three and one-half years 
and upon my release I would have owed the debts, and could yet be im- 
prisoned under the Capias law, if I attempted to leave the country. 



16 

If I were in prison the cost of guards to look after the property, and of 
sale under attachment, with attorneys' fees, would amount, practically, to 
confiscation of the property. 

I was compelled to submit to what was nothing less than legal robbery. 

The men took their money to the saloons and dance halls, in many cases, 
and paid for a few hours' dissipation. 

1^ f I f f ^ returned to my cabin in awful despair. I was alone, 

without food and without fuel, and it was midwinter. 
The pilot bread and tea were soon gone and I began to realize the possi- 
bility of starvation. For two weeks I had eaten little and I was becoming 
weak 

In this emergency I received notice from my landlord that I must vacate 
the cabin. This seemed a pitiable solution of the matter, as a lack of shel- 
ter would soon obviate the necessity for food. 

It may be inquired if there were none to aid me ? My employees, of the 
ordinary class of laborers, had been both insistent and brutal, with the 
exception of three men. Various lawyers, who are of the business class* 
were aggressive and merciless, excepting the one who advised my trip to 
Forty-mile. He received no pay, and made no demands for pay, nor has he 
since. 
^. . The officials were enlightened as to the sacrifice I would 

I tl6V Kn6W 

be compelled to make but were alike merciless in placing 
me in my present situation. Some of my friends, perhaps from a super- 
stitious fear that their effort to sustain me might strengthen their own 
chance of persecution in future, were inclined to avoid me A few offered 
me loans; but for a woman to accept favor of men under such circumstances 
is often to place herself under obligations that imply sacrifice in other 
directions. A few offered aid from genuine good-will, but it is only justice 
to refuse to allow the sacrifice of others until all means of living indepen- 
dently are exhausted. 

Yet others For a time there seemed to be no hope for me to secure 

aided. either food, fuel or a cabin; but soon Bob Lowry, a less 

mercenary neighbor, offered to rent me a cabin on the bank of the Yukon 
not far away, agreeing to wait until I could get my wardrobe from the out- 
side and realize money from its sale. Other neighbors brought wood and 
made a bunk and a table for me. I asked the men why they did these kind- 
nesses. One answered that they belonged to a brotherhood in which they 
were taught to assist those who were unfortunate. I afterwards learned 
they were Odd Fellows. I had not known previously that the good works of 
such orders are not exclusively reserved for widows and families of members. 




1 View of resting place on the bank of the Klondyke.— 2. A cache on 
the bank of Bonanza Creek under which I slept all night on one of my trips 
from Dawson to Dominion.— 3. Odd Fellows bringing wood for me —4. $1,5UU 
worth of wood before my cabin as I left when I Tvent to Forty Mile. I paid $*> 
a month for this cabin.— 5. Interior of the Lowery cabin.— 6. The Lo^ery 
cabin, rent $30 a month. L. B. V. 



19 

Before I became settled in the new cabin I discovered a small but very 
complete outfit which had been stolen from my cache and secreted hy a 
former employee, who had access to the cache. So I had 200 pounds of 
flour, 50 pounds of sugar and a little of almost everything except butter 
and milk. I exchanged some of the supplies for these luxuries, and con- 
tinued to live independently. 

In this emergency I felt impelled to try for a deeper ex- 
A newer life <=> .< 

perience of real life and independent thought. I had 

been freed from what, when I possessed it, I had valued highly, but which' 
when taken from me, had, as I discovered, been a cause of narrowing my 
life to fit the conditions which my prosperous circumstances made. I was 
left as it were, without any environment that I owned or controlled partic- 
ularly. The whole world became my environment; all phases of life were 
its conditions, and alike mine, as I chose to subject myself to their influences. 
In this mood I undertook a novel, entitling it, " The 
Strange Confessions of a Suicide." This story em- 
bodies the life of the trail, the camp and the gold diggings; and voices the 
impressions of the heroine, " Harriet Havelman," of that life as against the 
"confessions" of ''Roland Amsden," the hero, as to advance of truth. 

As an amusement I wrote my impressions of the most interesting and 
peculiar phases of life around me, in a set of squibs and short stories, in an 
effort to solve its hidden meaning. In my lonely cabin at night, writing by 
the light of a single candle, I have even laughed at some of the situations I 
found myself picturing. In that Northern daylight-midnight my gloomy 
abode has been peopled with strange fancies, and, though penniless and 
alone in the far Northland, I found companionship and an exhilerating sense 
of new life in my subject. The impressions that resulted in these squibs 
and short stories have taken the form of, " The Scar- 
y aim. ^^^ j^.^^ ^^ Dawson and the Roseate Dawn of Nome," 
and "John Bompas and other Stories of the Northland." Such books to be 
useful must be founded on fact. No effort has been made to flatter or con- 
demn any person or class. Facts have here been presented in the garb of 
fiction. Composite characters have been employed and the truth has been 
" arranged " to avoid personalities. Let no lover of scandal search these 
pages for flings at any envied or erring one 

You cannot It has been my aim to state fairly the conditions which 
know. gxist in the Yukon territory, and to portray its life as I 

saw it. I would suggest a reserve as to prejudice against any people or 
nation. I could give no valuable opinion as to the result of a comparison 



20 

of the life and actions of those whom I have designated as Yukon English, 
with average Continental or Canadian English, I believe the Canadian 
government will grant me justice when my case is properly put before 
them 

You cannot t II ^ would also suggest a reserve of suspicion as to in- 
dividuals who have been identified with the life of the 
trail, and of the Northern Mining Camps. The prevalence of vice, and its 
aggressive and almost irresistible influence, should not cloud the reputa. 
tions of any who have struggled to maintain honor with entire, or even with 
partial success. No small degree of honor has been maintained without a 
struggle that is worthy of commendation. 

,j. . ,- It has always been a part of my creed not to pay 

tribute to misfortune and affliction, in tears and in 
acrimonious recriminations. Live superior to all life's ill, is better philos- 
ophy. The hurried, bustling world is weary, and in its few leisure hours 
would be amused. I have sought relief from sorrow in writing, may you 
forget care in reading. l^ belle Brooks- Vincent, 

Dawson, Y. T., August 14, 1900. 
Note.— Up to the time of going to press, March 20th, 1900, no variation as 
to the Yul<on British policy of government has been reported. 

u . . , The exceptional case of the broker whose high-handed 

He had no fear, j v , , , , . , xx « 

dealing caused me such loss, may be cited. He after- 
ward incurred labor debts to the extent of many thousands of dollars, 
securing labor upon the assurance given laborers in my case, which became 
his capital in guaranteeing the payment of wages at a risk of personal 
safety. He entangled many owners of valuable claims by his contracts, 
and as innocent parties in litigation with laborers. By some means he es- 
caped imprisonment or punishment and avoided permanently the payment 
of his labor debts, excepting a few cases in which from six to eight per 
cent of the amount due was tendered. 

He paid He obtained six thousand dollars in money from an aged Ger- 

no cash. ^^^^^^ using his contracts made in connection with his agree- 
ment with me, and which showed a credit of various amounts, $5,000> 
$4,000 and other smaller amounts, as having been paid in cash, as a means 
to obtain credit with his aged friend. This transaction resulted in the 
arrest of the broker by the German for obtaining money under false pre- 
tenses. The broker's defense in the preliminary hearing was Ma/ ke never 
represented to the German that he had paid any cash on those contracts. 
He was detained in the country under bonds for trial. The outcome of the 
case is looked forward to with much interest. 



21 

He said The dramatic escape from Dawson of the editor of one of 

too much. t;}jg Dawson daily papers, has been the subject of much com- 
ment. The editor, whom we will call Semple, has for some time been en- 
gaged in anti-administration literary work. He published some facts in 
regard to a case which was being tried, when the Yukon officials, who are 
rather inclined to exercise authority for profit, even though vengeance is 
justice, proceeded to fine Semple $1,000 for contempt of court. Semple was 
taken to prison, but he didn't have his gold sack with him. The Yukon 

-r. , , . officials courteously declined to allow Semple police escort to 

They locked ^ ^^ \ ■, j n ^ ^ • , , ,.,, 

. . . go out upon the trail and find some friend who did have a 

gold sack, and in that brief, uncertain hour the lever swung 
back and Semple took all his stock of rhetoric, of logic, and of garnered 
Yukon facts and was escorted down the vile corridor, past 44 cell 
doors, through the gratings of v/hich peered 44 criminals, or vagrants, 
or debtors, or others, till at the end of the promenade a second lever 
clanged, a cell door opened and the bright name of Semple was eclipsed 
and he became No. 45, a prisoner. A friend subsequently brought the 
thousand dollars, which was the price of Semple's contempt, and paid it to 
the Yukon officials for the material they furnished Semple with which to 
manufacture his expensive contempt, and Semple was set at liberty. Semple 
went back to his sanctum but his stock of contempt was not exhausted and 
he was soon fined $1,( 00 for his next installment of contempt. By some 
accident the news reached Semple before the officer arrived, which caused 

Semple to ascend the Moosehide Mountain and lodge for two 

or three days in the cabin of a friend. His friend, instead 
of carrying his gold sack down to the Yukon officials and paying for 
Semple's contempt, decided to circulate a few Yukon exaggerations as a 
cheap expedient. He told that Semple had gone to the American side. It 
seems that the Yukon officials believed these reports, for soon Semple 
J, started safely with a dog team for the outside. He measured 

Semple fled. ®^®^y ™^^® ^^ ^^® journey with his surplus contempt, but 

kept very quiet during his periods of rest at the various road 
houses in the neighborhood of the police stations. 

Now Semple is now in the States, and free. The British officials 

Semple s here, j^g^^g j^jg thousand dollars. His business interests are in 
Dawson, but he is obliged to transport his contempt thither by wireless 
His money's telegraphy, as the Yukon telegraph line does not carry 
there. sush messages. 

San Francisco, Cal., March 20th, 1900. L. B. V. 







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A SOCIETY TRANSFORMATION SCENE. 



They chose The tale of Cinderella or the Crystal Slipper 

no men. j^^g proven a triumph in works of imagina- 

tion, retaining its hold on the public through generation 
after generation. Writers of this and similar tales have 
rested satisfied with transforming poverty into affluence, 
only requiring that the poverty be accompanied by youth 
and beauty. When not inherited, wealth and power are 
impossible to the poor in real life, except occasionally as 
the result of long, patient and well directed effort. In 
fiction, the object of favor is usually a beautiful woman; — 
vide King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid; — men have not 
been thus transformed in the imagination of writers. No 
beautiful fairy ever singled out an ash-man and had him 
drawn to a court ball in a great brougham conjured out of 
a pumpkin, and drawn by spanking roadsters made from the 
mice that ran out of the garbage-barrel. No charming 
princess ever found his crystal boot after he had made his 
escape downstairs, five steps at a time, falling in love with 
its owner, when his face and actual presence during the 
ball had failed to impress her. Ash-men have been, and 
are, ash-men still, for all any high-titled ladies may care. 
An English queen may have been flattered at the gallantry 
of a Raleigh, quick-witted enough to lay his cloak upon the 
ground to cover a muddy pathway, to repay his gallantry 
by casting him a few crumbs of power and dignity from her 
surplus. The rash young daughter of a millionaire papa may 
elope with papa's coachman, but as a result she generally 
adapts herself to the young Jehu's environment instead of 
raising him to power and dignity. 



24 

When Genius has become faint and aweary, when men 
have cried bravo! bravo! and granted the laurel wreath to 
writers o f imagination, and honored those who have been 
elevated by sudden and extraordinary good fortune, then 
has a mischievous Fate bestirred the stagnant pool of life 
to free new wonders. 

It is a matter of conjecture whether this same Fate is 
laughing or weeping over the joke she perpetrated when she 
planned the great discovery of gold on the Klondyke. 

She made The men who were to be transformed into 

some kings. so-called millionaires had never dreamed 

of the possibility of wealth and power. They left their 
farms, their work-tables, the saloons and gambling dens, all 
the wealth and comfort of civilization which they were un- 
able to buy, and gravitated toward the Northland. They 
had no ideas as to a consistent use of wealth, nor of the 
methods by which it is usually acquired; and, as a matter of 
fact, they had no definite knowledge as to the extent of their 
own capacity for enjoyment of the advantages wealth may 
secure to its possessors. Bacon, beans and flour comprised 
their outfit of food. Log cabins, which they built at the 
post now called Dawson, became their homes. Most of them 
were trying to escape the tyranny of long hours of toil, and 
consequently were not seeking employment as prospectors. 
They all realized, however, that someone must do a little 
work, and there was a general feeling of unrest until three 
or four Swedes started up the gulch and began the actual 
labor of prospecting. 

They worked For several years a few hardy miners had 
the bars. ^^^^ rocking gold on the bars of the Stew- 

art River, about sixty miles distant. These men were not 
encouraged by the fur traders whose little steamer passed 



25 

once a year up as far as Selkirk, three hundred miles above 
the present city of Dawson. They had been obliged to make 
long trips to the outside world for food supplies, which they 
carried over Chilkoot Pass and down the Yukon via the 
Canyon and White-Horse Rapids; thus consuming much valu- 
able time in early Summer and leaving but a short season 
for work upon the bars. The present process of thawing 
frozen ground by fires, or by use of steam, was unknown, 
therefore Winter work was impossible, and the miners were 
compelled to idly wait during the long Winter months. In 
the early summer of '96 a few venturesome prospectors, 
who had been working on Quartz Creek, a branch of the 
Indian River, crossed over the Great Dome and went down 
to Gold Bottom, a gulch that enters Hunker Creek about two 
miles below Discovery. Here they found gold. They hastily 
constructed some sluice boxes and worked until their pro- 
visions were nearly gone. For some unknown reason they 
did not return to Stewart for a new supply of food, but went 
over the mountains and down to the mouth of the Klon- 
dyke, where, upon the boggy flat now occupied by the City 
of Dawson, they found two Indians encamped and with them 
a white man called " Injun George." They told of their new 
discovery, and Injun George, with two Indians, started up 
the Klondyke and thence up Bonanza Creek, intending to go 
to Gold Bottom. 

They found At a distance of twelve miles from the 

the pay. mouth of the Klondyke, they camped on 

Bonanza Creek. Digging down a few feet they discovered 
the wonderful Bonanza pay streak. It is somewhat remark- 
able that their discovery should have been in the richest part 
of the Creek. If they had prospected a few miles below 
they would have found nothing, and if they had gone a few 
miles further their efforts would also have been futile. 



26 

George, with his Indian companions, staked out claims and 
returned with all haste to the mouth of the Klondyke. 
From there they embarked in a small boat down the Yukon 
to Forty-mile Post, fifty-five miles below, to notify his part- 
ners and companions of the new strike. The camp at Forty- 
mile was soon depopulated, and the news spread to Circle 
and to various small camps. The steamer of the fur-trad- 
ing company at Selkirk, on its way up the river, proceeded 
with all haste to reach Selkirk and to remove its store and a 
small saw-mill to the new camp at the mouth of the Klon- 
dyke. In August the first cabin in Dawson was built by this 
Company, and the mill machinery was placed in operation. 
The Forty-milers were first on the ground to stake claims on 
Bonanza. Circle City and Stewart River miners were not 
much behind them. A few essayed to do a little prospect- 
ing on El Dorado but, discovering nothing, came back down 

the Creek and, at its junction with Bonanza, 
mistak^*'* erected a sign board with this inscription, — 

*'We leave this creek to the Cheechargos 
and the Swedes." A few cabins, saloons, bunk houses and 
tent houses were hastily constructed at the new post, and thus 
the approach of Winter found them. This was the condition 
when the before-mentioned Swedes started out on their pros- 
pecting tour. The Swedes went up Bonanza and notwith- 
standing the sign at the mouth of El Dorado, which was 
intended to convey the idea that the creek was worthless, 
they decided to prospect in El Dorado. They set their picks 
and shovels with determination and soon found colors. Faster 
yet they worked, until thirty feet below the surface they 
uncovered El Dorado's bed-rock. Not Heaven, but paved 
with gold. They staked their claims and the news spread 
like wild-fire. Soon all those who had waited so patiently 
stampeded to the new diggings, set their stakes and marked 
their claims on El Dorado. 




1. An El Dorado kingdom. «q nm <n 

2. Miners drying and weighing the gold after the clean-up. J8.000 in 
the pan by the window. 




1. Prince Antoine and lady of Birch creek. 

2. A group of Klondyke kings. The first man to the right in the pic- 
ture with wide rim hat is Alex McDonald, beside him is Dick Lowe. 



29 

Kings and It is a solemn scene when kings are made, 
kingdoms. ^^^ when kingdoms are spoken into existence, 
but mischievous Fate turned her dimpled cheek and winked 
her eye saucily when she saw a common looking fellow set 
his stakes at the four corners of a claim. He could chop 
down the spruce tree and hew it into square posts and set 
them in the earth, but he could not write the words, " I, 
Blank Blankson, claim five hundred feet up and down this 
creek; measuring south from this post." A companion 
marked the stake and Fate said merrily, " Never mind the 
writing, I hereby make you a millionaire. You don't know 
it, but there are one million dollars in gold on the bed-rock 
of the claim you have staked. I'll show the world a wonder. 
You shall make the history of a million of dollars in gold, 
He felt launched upon its mission of good or ill.'' 

the same. ^^^^ ^^^^ turned to another, whose muddled 

brain was losing to him the fourth corner of 
his claim, and by strenuous effort, she prevented him from 
staking a triangular piece of ground. She consoled him by 
saying, " Good luck my boy, you are a little off on geometri- 
cal figures, nevertheless I crown you an El Dorado King, and 
this is your kingdom. You can buy champagne in a flood to 
equal the freshet that tears down this gulch in springtime." 
He was ^^® *^®^ helped another to move his stakes 

the same. ^^* ^^ ^^ *^ include a fraction. She suggested 

that, later, he might want to locate a friend 
on the fraction. She helped another to a million dollar slice 
of El Dorado in these words, " Good boy, you don't need a 
He did not ^^^^ stand or a fruit stall; you can now buy 
believe it. ^ whole menagerie and a plantation." A poor, 

weazened-looking fellow planted his stakes 
firmly, and Fate promised him he should be a great swell 



„ . . and a sport. And so the work progressed on 

. that eventful day. All the unclaimed wealth 

twfls so* 

of El Dorado became so many little kingdoms, 

each within four newly-hewed posts. The Yukon country 
was now the checker-board of fate, and kings galore were 
made. Kings that could be moved, and cornered, and 
jumped, and ignobly cast aside when the game is played. 
Fate laughed merrily. The kings could see a possible few 
hundreds or thousands of dollars, but she could discern mil- 
lions in new, shining gold. These kings assembled that 
night at the post, and the rose-hued dawn of their vermillion 
history began. They were robed in the despised garb of 
poverty, they had no temperance mixtures from lack of the 
Klondyke water, filtering through gravel to 
the nearby well of the Dawson water works, 
to be supplied two years later at five cents 
a gallon. They swore, by the ace of spades, the oath of 
allegiance to self-made authority. They drank each other's 
health in over-draughts of hootch and bad whiskey. 
A crown One of these kings attempted to perpetrate a 

for sale. joke upon a Swede named Gunderson. He 

caused him to become intoxicated, and while he was in that 
condition, sold him his kingdom on El Dorado for eight 
hundred dollars. Repentance came to Gunderson with re- 
turning sense, and he tried to compel the return of his 
money, but he was obliged to retain the kingdom. It has 

since yielded him half a million in gold. One 
King of the ^ -, ^ i. i • j j • 

man commenced to buy kmgdoms and prm- 

cipalities. He soon became the Prime King 
of the Klondyke. He had never been a money king or finan- 
cier before, yet he pursued the methods of successful busi- 
ness men in civilization in buying, for a mere pittance, king- 
doms scattered along all the creeks, as they were stampeded 



31 

and located. Before these were prospected the kingdoms 
were sold at a low price. When a creek proved rich he 
shared largely in its wealth. When a creek proved a failure 
he lost little, as his original investment had been small. A 
few good creeks, like Hunker, Dominion and Sulphur, se- 
cured to him a profit, a small percentage of which easily re- 
placed his losses on other worthless creeks. The "Big 
Moose," as this king is familiarly called, is a canny Scot. 
When his wealth told a million he still continued to live in a 
squalid log cabin in Dawson, a corner of which, enclosed by 
a board partition covered with cheese cloth to which some 
badly demoralized wall paper was clinging, constituted his 
private office. When I called there one day a bookkeeper 
sat perched upon a high stool, counting the wealth of the 
realm, its income, its royalties and its bills payable; for the 
king of the Klondyke is a plunger in speculation, and has 
no fear of 10% a month paper on the deals he makes. Fur- 
ther back in the cabin was a camp cooking stove and other 
not too luxurious furnishings. Just as the midnight sun was 
sending her crimson rays to the eastward on the previous 
night, this squalor had been glorified by the arrival of five 
men, each carrying fifty pounds of gold, and a pack train of 
mules, each loaded with a hundred and fifty pounds of the 
precious metal. The king will drink now and then with a 
friend, but no part of his millions passes over the bar in 
purchasing hilarity for a lot of followers. He wears plain 
clothes. A sack coat hangs loosely from his broad shoulders. 
II . His grey eyes and heavy features wear an ex- 

no swell pression of indifference as he passes along the 

street. It is said that he never worries or 
passes a restless night. He always wears a broad-brimmed, 
cow-boy hat, and may be seen on Sunday at 8 a. m. entering 
St. Mary's Church, for early Mass. He contributed twenty- 



32 

five thousand dollars toward building St. Mary's Church, 
which is a record no other miner has made. Once he ac- 
quired a lesser fortune in mines, in the States, but he came 
here without even an adequate outfit. He was packing for 
a living when the wealth of El Dorado came to his rescue. 
If he gets gloriously drunk upon occasion the fates do not 
record these lapses. There is no record of his ever having 
transfered any of his wealth to a woman. It is reported 
that he has married a foreign girl of good family, which is 
unusual in the history of these kings. The lady could not 
have married him for his title, as she can never become a 
She is no Klondyke queen except by moving thither and 
donning a short skirt, heavy, high-laced boots 
and a cow-boy hat, with a dog team or pack- 
horse accompaniment, and by acquiring the necessary num- 
ber of claims to establish her right to the title. The title 
only lasts during the active reign on his native soil of the 
one in power. If this great king removes to the environ- 
ment of his lady he may be a millionaire but it will be said 
of him, " He was the king of the Klondyke." Scraps of the 
history of these kings, and the affairs of their realms, have 
reached the public through the industry of the press, whose 
feats of imagination surpass all records in fiction. Fate has 
decreed the early passing of these kings; soon they will all 
be cornered, or jumped, or played to a finish in some shape, 
and cast aside as dead material. Observers of the game 
will turn their attention to other affairs of life and forget 
that these men ever did play any part at all as kings, or 
that Fate ever used them in such important roles. 
A Klondyke The next important one in the play was a dago 
king. king. Not a king of the Dagos, but a dago 

Klondyke king. He had a warm, southern nature, and 
dreamy eyes that upon occasion bespoke passion and purpose, 




1. Bench claims on Bonanza, 500 feet above the creek level. The 
claim showing chute for pay-dirt produced $200,000 to the interest of 
Asche, the owner, 

2. An El Dorado kingdom.— 3. Shows the dumps before the clean-up. 



35 

and, after forty years of waiting, he proved himself equal 
to a most ardent romance of peculiar, vermillion hue. Back 
in New York, Chicago and 'Frisco, he had seen painted stage 
beauties singing popular songs and doing the skirt dance, 
but when their terpsichorean feats came within his range 
of vision he knew they were playing to the gallery for ap- 
plaus only. Their real smiles, and much worn affections, 
were for the boxes and the circle. 

When the first news of vast wealth on the Klondyke was 
conveyed to civilization and it resulted in the appearance in 
Dawson of dancing, singing, thirsty women, he thought it 
due to the philanthropy of dance-hall men in risking ex- 
penditure to import all this talent for the entertainment of 
lonely miners. He might surmise these beauties were women 
of forty or forty-five, disguised as seventeen, but how could 
he know they were prospectors for sure wealth and for 
ground already staked? The miners were to work the claims 
but the women would work the miners. When this Dago 
king had fully established the wealth of his realm and had 
means to indulge creditably in the dissipation of Dawson, 
with leisure to enjoy the racy exhibitions of Dawson's 
theatre, he found these imported stage beauties were in- 
clined to abbreviate their stay in the greenroom and join 
men about the bar as good fellows. 

She sang He had long admired the singing and dancing 
to him. of Miss Bessie Yarrow and had applauded her 

act heartily. When she would return and give her encore 
with a dash of naughtiness, he, with other men, (there were 
no women in these audiences), would throw coins and gold 
nuggets upon the stage until she returned again in a 
graded success of abondonment, far exceeding any club 
relish ever enjoyed outside. When the stage was littered 
with an attractive debris of wealth and Bessie walked 



36 

down among the men, there seemed to be a magnetic 
attraction established between the two by the coins and 
nuggets that he had charged with his deepest love and 
admiration, and had cast at her feet. When, true as a 
magnet to its pole, Bessie came straight toward him, throw- 
ing her thin arms as far around his great girth as was pos- 
sible, and pillowing her head against the woolen shirt upon 
his breast, with the impassioned words, " He looks good to 
me," the sensation which this king experienced nearly took him 
off his feet. His heart pounded under his left suspender as 
the picks pounded upon the bedrock of his kingdom. This 
„ was bliss! It was a wonderful experience! 

. To pay a dime outside for a seat in the gal- 

lery just to watch the painted beauties from 
afar, had seemed a seventh heaven of delight. To pay five 
dollars in Dawson for a nearer view he had deemed a pre- 
cious privilege. A small exposed section of Bessie's painted 
shoulder had suggested a Venus-like perfection. The tip of 
her slippered foot, with its red-stockinged instep arching 
above a high heel set exactly in the middle, had seemed a 
fairy thing, but now to possess her entire personality, if 
only for a moment, was the quintessence of bliss. He did 
not need the champagne and mixed drinks that he ordered 
that night, costing him hundreds of dollars. Nothing could 
increase the happiness of being in the presence of Bessie 
Yarrow. What Bessie lacked in ardor and spontaniety pec- 
uliar to youth, she made up in resourceful arts accumulated 
by an experience of forty-five sweet summers and forty- 
three and a half winters of more or less severity. Bessie 
had a lover already, one Tom Thomas, who accompanied her 
into this country, and her heart, or what she called her 
heart, was true to him. He was back in the wings shifting 
the scenes, and his left suspender was in a tolerable state 



37 

of vibration, but not from jealousy or anger. Oh no, he 
knew Bessie too well for that. He was confident that when 
she cashed in her checks in the morning at 
" ^!" the bar, her twenty-five per cent of what the 

King had ordered would be a nice little sum, 
and he did not know what further profit might follow. 
Bessie could w^ork the king, but he was working Bessie, so 
it was all his gain, and the king was very much elated and 
very happy. He began to realize that he was a real, live 
king. He had but one trouble. His kingdom was away up 
the gulch. He must turn his back upon Bessie and go oc- 
casionally to look after his subjects. The men who were 
tearing up the golden bedrock might be putting great pieces 
of it in their pockets. They must be looked after. So the 
king put on his parka and mocassins and mushed back to the 
kingdom alone ; but he came to hate the trail that led away 
from Bessie, and his log cabin royal palace 
^ ^" ., was dingy as compared with the saloon where 

^ ^^* * Bessie caressed him as he ordered the cham- 
pagne. The tin cans in which he cooked his food disgusted 
him. The mounds of bright yellow gravel that lay about 
the shafts that penetrated to the bedrock of his realm, were 
mountains of difficulty, and the spaces between were little 
valleys of discontent. All because Bessie was so far away. 
Irony of fate! Here was a king in full, undisputed posses- 
sion of a kingdom. This kingdom was not set with beans 
and potatoes and corn, like those outside, but was stored 
with precious gold throughout its length and breadth. The 
king's reign was not menaced by discontented tenantry, nor 
warring factions, yet all of this great power and wonderful 
gift of wealth seemed incomplete. It was to him a source 
of misery and downright discontent. He would gladly ex- 
change it for the unoccupied portion of the heart of Bessie 
Yarrow! 



In this extremity the King appealed to Bessie herself. 
She was shrewdly able to see the advantage of giving per- 
sonal attention to the handling and cleaning up of so much 
gold. Stage work was a drudgery and a bore to her, except 
as it served to place her in communication with kings. She 
feigned to demur at making the king her final choice. She 
feared that if she went up the gulch to his palace he might 
ask her to polish the palace, tin- ware and to prepare the 
royal menu, and in the Spring she might have no checks to 
cash in. When the king understood her fears, he readily 
made out a check in advance in the form of a nineteen 
thousand dollar mortgage on his " dumps." So Bessie went 

c. up the gulch to look after her interests and 

one saw 
. I . the king was happy. She no longer danced 

nor sang, she had no other accomplishments, 
and could neither cook nor keep the cabin clean. She really 
did not amount to much out of her sphere as an ordinary 
vaudeville singer and dance -hall girl, and she had not gone 
before this king in the capacity of a dancer in his palace. 
He sometimes pondered deeply, realizing that she was an 
expensive toy. He had a vague idea that she was not ad- 
apted to satisfy those needs of a king which are common to 
ordinary mortals. But he knew full well just why he wanted 
her. Other kings had seen and applauded her, and some- 
times, when she caressed them in public, they had seemed 
just as delighted as he had been when she bestowed such 
favors upon him. He wanted to show them that he could 
capture the prize and carry her off bodily; extinguishing 
their stage light for ever. It was his victory. In this he 
was not unlike many other men. Even whole nations have 
fought for prizes and when acquired have not known what 
to do with their new possessions. Bessie conferred with 
Tom Thomas. In view of the king's half-a-million they con- 



39 

eluded that Bessie should become his wife. So, after the 
clean up, the king and Bessie were married and sailed away 
down the Yukon to buy diamonds and wine in such quantities 
as to astonish the outside world, and to travel in other lands 
leaving a trail of reminiscences as to the final disposition of 
one Klondyke fortune. Bessie was careful to have Tom 
Thomas left in charge of the kingdom as prince-regent, and 
he proceeded to tear up the golden bedrock in a way to 
astonish even the king himself. When his majesty returned 
he found a base usurper in his place, one who had already 
found favor with his consort. But Bessie's heart is prin- 
cipally with the kingdom, and next to that, with regent 
Thomas. 

They live When the dispensers of spiritous liquors, dia- 

for show. mond merchants, hotel proprietors, trans- 
portation companies, tailors and modistes have given of 
their goods for the gold of this king, Bessie's experience 
will not count as an attraction on the vaudeville stage. A 
dago fruit-stall man and a dance-hall girl transformed to 
millionaires may be a sensation of the day, but a Klondyke 
king selling peanuts for a living, or his diamond-bedecked 
wife as waitress in a beer garden, are events to be forgotten. 
Whatever may be said of this king, he got 
I g n se. ^,jj^|^ j^g p^ld foj.^ ^nd enjoyed an appear- 
ance of security in his possession. Not so with the little 
Swedish king, Gonorse. This was probably the fault of Miss 
Aster who was an important pawn the day it became the 
turn of King Gonorse to be used in a decisive play on the 
checker-board of fate. 

Fate looked the kings over, and as she lifted Gonorse for 
a jump over a Bonanza potentate whose kingdom was short 
in the yellow metal pavement, she discovered that though 
his head was a little light, his kingdom had been increased 



40 

by conquests in various directions. So she decided to make 
him the victor and, incidentally. Miss Aster's conquest. 

An arctic Miss Aster had a head but she had no heart. 
love. She had a piece of bedrock firmly secured in 

the place where that tender organ should have been. She 
tried the dance-hall but she was becoming conscious of her 
superior worth in other directions. She was a large,- fine 
looking woman with an abundance of nerve. She had a 
certain vital energy, which, if influenced by an ardent pas- 
sion, would have made for her a record as a queen of love 
in social life; but when centered on self, and dedicated to 
mercenary ends,meant danger to others. She would devote 
only part of her time to any man and it was folly of Gonorse 
to attempt to claim it all. He was ambitious, and, with 
commendable perseverance, he sought to make up in con- 
tributions of kingdoms and interests in kingdoms, what he 
lacked in personal attraction. Foolish man ! When Miss 
Aster was put in possession of two-thirds of the 'steenth 
kingdom on Dominion, he had not added one inch to his 
stature nor any new power of discernment to his brain. 
This heartless woman then decided her mission was no longer 
to cash in checks at 7 a. m. after a night in the dance-hall. 
She could not, for a time, decide whether she would hence- 
forth be a female Shylock or the doorkeeper in an oflacial 
house of authority in Dawson. She wanted to be something 
terrible, the sooner the better. While toying with possibili- 
ties the polished Mr. Maco entered upon the scene. He was 
versed in the art of love-making and he hated work. 

And she Miss Aster already had a lady lover but she 

was wise. confined her attentions to afternoons and oc- 
casional morning hours, and installed Maco as a means by 
which Gonorse could be made to pay roundly for her favorj 



41 

She showed him that a period of fickle forgetfulness on her 
part could be cured by a gift of an interest in a kingdom. 

When the sufferings of Gonorse were past endurance he 
bought relief by transferring to Miss Aster an interest in a 
kingdom and both were very happy. 

And she Her great, white arms about his small shoul- 

was fair. ders were a wealth of beauty sacrificed, even 

when his appreciation was magnified to its fullest capacity. 
A portion af a kingdom, or a small principality, seemed 
slight recompense. Poor, deluded man! 
But she To complete this record of the Scarlet Life, 

was false. base downright cold-hearted treachery must 
be added, and Maco furnished that element. Maco abond- 
oned all pretense of work and devoted himself to Miss Aster. 
She was launched upon a career of treachery that out-rivals 
all others in Dawson, as a cowardly use of the charm of 
womanhood to torment, punish, and betray a man who was 
unable to discern her motives, and too ignorant to protect 
himself from her wiles. At times she ignored Gonorse and 
spurned him. She took every means of showing her con- 
tempt. Gonorse would become distressed and almost insane 
from grief. A gift of a kingdom or two would buy a smile 
and a few kind words from Miss Aster, and he was restored 
to happiness. Miss Aster revealed her duplicity in turning 
to her parasite lover and openly lavishing upon him the gold 
of the betrayed Gonorse. Over and over again this beauti- 
ful, treacherous w^oman brought her powers to bear upon the 
Yet he luckless Gonorse, and yet again would he cast 

weak wealth at her feet. Miss Aster now possesses 
interests worth a quarter of a million, and it 
is believed that she will retain the bulk of her fortune. 
Gonorse continues to evince a sincere infatuation for her. 
Maco is not a man of sensitive mould or he would not profit 



42 

by a woman's base treachery to another. The trio are a 
unique combination, even in the life of Dawson. A Klon- 
dyke fortune has been a curse to Gonorse in affording temp- 
tation to such a woman as Miss Aster to prolong what can 
be only punishment for him. His lack of judgment is to 
be deplored in that he does not perceive her transitory smiles 
can only be bought with gold. 

A Klondyke king's The Checker-board of Fate was left one 
celebrated day in Springtime to the manipulation 

breakfast. of an unknown force. Easter-egg roll- 

ing of civilization had just arrived. A little late, but eggs 
were selling up here at a dollar and a half each. It was was 
time for a new king to be moved, and so one decided to make 
his own play. Violet Pease had been the favorite stage artist 
of this king, but she had coldly left him for another lover. 
As the king looked up from a six months old 'Frisco paper, 
with which he was beguiling his time as he awaited the ap- 
pearance of the second installment of his tardy breakfast of 
salt ham and boiled beans with onion dressing, he chanced to 
detect the musk-scented aroma of Miss Violet's presence, and 
to hear her soft voice ordering, ''Three fried eggs^ please f 
"Great Heavens!" groaned the deserted king, ''three fried 
eggs, and for her! I swear by my kingdom, and the fraction 
I own besides, she shall not have them. "Here waiter!" he 
called. That functionary came quickly, for 
^^ * he feared the king had found a bean in his 

dish a little off color, as he had ordered pink beans of a uni- 
form size, shape and color, that morning. The kin? cleared 
his royal throat and said, " Bring me every Qgg in the house, 
fry them, bake them, stew them, serve them on the half 
shell, make them into soup, smother them with garlic, cover 
them with macaroni sauce, fee yourself with them, scrub the 
floor with them, but serve me every Qgg in the house." The 



43 

waiter covered the distance to the kitchen in just threes 
hounds and was soon tearing his wool in an effort to rei)eat 
the king's order. The proprietor flopped his ears thought- 
fully and started up and down the alley to the back doors of 
other restaurants, for more eggs. JSoon the whole force of 
waiters were moving in a solemn procession from the kitchen 
to the royal table. They brought eggs on plates, on saucers, 
in basins, in pans and on pieces of tin cans. They served 
eggs rolled in napkins and strung on wires; they filled the 
table and the chairs. They hung them up on the hat hooks. 
With toothpicks they pinned great fried eggs on the king's 
royal robe where buttons should have been. They placed a 
big omelette as a plaster over his heart, and they crowned 
him with another. They made a miniature kingdom, the bed- 
rock of which v;as the whites of the eggs, the pay streak 
the yolks, and they formed the thick gravel deposit above of 
Lerue's crystalized hen-fruit, making a muck covering of 
Spanish fricassee. Violet tapped her little foot impatiently 
upon the floor as she waited, only to see the waiter approach 
her empty handed, saying, " Very sorry, Miss, but we have- 
nn-e.(jc)sy In these words lay the king's triumph. The waiter 
placed beside the king's plate a check which read *' 5/20, 
Breakfast $900.00" — but then had he not made the decree 
to Violet, "We havr-no-r(jg>i''? ''No eggs" for Violet, — he 
had nine hundred dollars worth of eggs, but Violet could not 
have a single one. At last he had thwarted her, and she was 
punished. 

' As the king poured nine hundred dollars in 

dust from the plethoric depths of his royal 
sack, into the blower on the counter, the waiter was disap- 
pearing through the kitchen door with a tray-load of the 
debris of the king's celebrated breakfast. As he kicked the 
door open he was heard to soliloquize, ''By de holy smoke, if 



44 

dat fellah had tip me about ten dollars I jes done tole dat 
theatre woman ebery egg in dis heah house done gone rot- 
ten and spoiled. I calls dis heah a foolish piece ob business, 
I does." 

Thus was old Aesop's dinner of tongues, 
and the modern Seeley spread, discounted 
by this Klondyke king's celebrated breakfast. 

. .. . Fate was looking musingly at her checker- 

An abdication. , , , • i, • n • 

board one day, occasionally jollying the 

kings, when 'she was surprised to hear one express a d-esire 
to abdicate. He explained that he had a chance to buy out 
an interest in a saloon for four thousand dollars, adding, " I 
think I will look nice behind a bar; that will just suit me. 
You know, sweet Fate, my girl wanted some money and I 
sold half my kingdom to raise the riffle for her, I am. deter- 
mined to be a bar-keeper and I will let the other half go for 
four thousand dollars. It is well worth twenty thousand.'' 
Fate gave the tip to another king, who readily took advan- 
tage of the bargain, and the crown was removed from the 
head of him who preferred to be a bar-keeper. The great 
pleasure of going to a bar and ordering drinks gave him an 
exaggerated opinion of the enjoyment to be derived from 
dispensing such favor; there is no record that he ever re- 
pented his choice. 

A kingly A Norwegian king was played one night* to the 
charity. extent of three thousand dollars, in favor of a 
saloon. He saw his folly when he paid his bills the next day, 
and avoided such waste thereafter. He went to Norway and 
bought homes for his parents, his brothers and sisters, and 
provided for a permanent income for them. He pays his 
men $1.50 per hour, and an extra one hundred dollars at the 
clean-up, and in many ways exercises a royal charity and 
consideration for others less fortunate. 




Interior view of the Monte Carlo, a gambling house and dance hall. 




1. $500,000 brought from Dawson in iron bound boxes lined with gal- 
vanized iron. 

2. The same in the assay office in gold bricks. 



47 

The charity One king sneaked away to the outside with 

of a king. j^jg quarter of a million in gold, and, by his 

careful investments, has become a useful citizen, a very im- 
portant church member and a possible future power in poli- 
tics. He assists liberally in paying heavy indebtedness of 
churches and societies, but a loan of a few dollars, even 
although well secured, to an unfortunate but obscure 
brother, is not in his line. 

A royal Fate was at the theatre one night when it came 
actor. t,he turn of a great Skookum king to be played. 

He secured a mount, and upon his coal-black charger rode 
into the theatre, amid the crowd occupying the parquet 
chairs. The moving pictures were on, but as often happens 
in Dawson, living pictures in the rear of the house were 
more unique and exciting than stage play could possibly be. 

Dawson Dawson theatres often furnish scenes that 

theatres. surprise the cast. The audience is always 
supplied with conditions of its own, but the cast usually fol- 
lows its lines without improvisations; however, in the atmos- 
phere of Dawson, genius blooms in a variety of surprises. 
The vaudeville singer never condescends to a little coon imi- 
tator in the gallery; she can create the impression she de- 
sires unaided; besides, in the place where the dress circle 
and gallery should be are boxes all the way around. In some 
theatres there are two tiers, and in others but one. These 
boxes have curtains for the use of occupants when they are 
tired of seeing the play, and prefer to attend exclusively to 
the consumption of wine. 

Prudence One night the play was Camille and the 

interpolated. audience was becoming sympathetic and 
excited over the situation. Camille was on the stage doing 
her part in a manner wonderful even for a Bernhardt. She 



48 

goes to the window and calls, " Mistress Prudence, Mistress 
Prudence, Mistress Prudence!" Instead of the expected 
merry response from the stage distance imagine the effect 
made by the shrill voice of the truant actress, Prudence, as 
her frowsy head appears between the curtains of one of the 
wine boxes, her bare arms resting on the railing as she al- 
most screams, "Call away all you want to, Mistress Pru- 
dence will not be there to-night." The intoxicated actress 
was removed by the waiters and the play continued until it 
was interrupted by the leading man coming before the curtain 
to air his personal grievances against some men about town. 
The inconsistency of the Dawson theatres is that the 
stage is properly the audience and the audience the real, 
throbbing, pulsating, extreme drama, that far exceeds in 
interest what is attempted behind the footlights; but people 
do not fully realize it. Managers might well advertise, 
*' Come to-night and see the Kings and Dance Hall Girls pose 
in Living Pictures. See our Prima Donna with a Prominent 
Society Man in a Box in an Abbott-Irwin-Worlds-Fair-but- 
strictly- original Dawson Episode." " Never mind Paul Re- 
vere's Ride, See a Skookum King come tearing into the 
theatre — Don't wait for the curtain but look at the Au- 
dience." 

A royal A great foreign nation has sent a Consul to Daw- 
buffoon, son whom we will call Duff. He seems to be a man 
without an occupation, for either there is nothing for a Con- 
sul to do, or this Consul does not prove energetic in discov- 
ering his vocation. Fate determined to transform him into 
something unlike the character which a Consul should dis- 
play. She waited patiently and studied her subject. His 
arrival was commonplace. The banquet tendered him by the 
Yukon British was a tame affair. The British are of all 
people the most self-sufficient, and would prefer that foreign 



49 



nations trust them to administer their government fairly. 
Duff, the Consul, was a tighter and a descendent of the fight- 
ing McDuffs of history. His countrymen in Dawson were 
often oppressed and in trouble, nevertheless Duff did not 
care to fight; in fact, he ignored their appeals. Sometimes 
he inquired indifferently "if there was anything in it for 
him"? but evidently his interest lay in another direction. 
Duff was possessed by an unnatural appetite— due perhaps 
to snow eating on the trail— and he was visibly affected by 
the heavy odor of musk which hung about the dance-hall 
society. He was fat but he could dance, if only to please 
the girls, and he was bent on seeing the sights of Dawson. 
So he yielded to the prevalent contagion, and was soon going 
the pace of the genuine kings. Here is where Fate, with 
rare discernment as to the eternal fitness of things, raised 
her magic wand and tickled the red nose of the Consul, say- 
ing, "I hereby decree that you shall be the most dis- 
tinguished buffoon of all history— Gee Whiz! Z ip!— 

and away you go." The Consul did not discover any remark- 
able change in himself, in fact he felt quite 
He was natural and unusually sober. He took several 

the same. ^^.j^^j^g ^^ j^j-^^e himself, and ordered drinks 
for the girls. Then he broke loose in oratory. " I say, girls, 
—I'm a Duff-er— a McDuff-er— anything you choose— but I 
can't fight— oh no— this is a truce— I surrender— I throw 
down my arms— help yourselves." The girls went through 
his pockets, they took his watch and chain, a lot of gold 
nuggets, his fountain pen, a horse chestnut that he carried 
to prevent rheumatism, a sample of quartz ore a man had 
given him with a tip as to the location of the Mother-Lode, 
some silver and gold coins, all that he had of value they 
took; and though they were satisfied they had all, he urged 
them to look again. They searched and found some matches. 



50 

a soiled letter beginning, '' My dearest Duff," a U. S. post- 
age stamp and a piece of chewing gum. They all laughed 
loudly and threw their arms about him, and still more girls 
came to hang around him, and Duff was very happy. He 
finally waxed patriotic and proposed to compel from each 
one present a tribute to the flag of his own country. He 
could not do that as the British flag waves over Dawson, and 
after some lively rebuffs on the part of a few men present. 
Duff decided not to undertake what might be an unequal 
fight. From his ancestors he had inherited the spirit of war, 
but in his muddled condition, he could not tell whether he 
was the victor or the vanquished. The ruling passion is 
strong in death, and Duff was losing ground in a way to in- 
vite its approach. With a last effort before the fall, he 
looked about him to select the most able bodied man pres- 
ent; assuming that it were less ignoble to pose as a van- 
quished warrior than as a successful dance-hall beau, he said 
to the bar-keeper, "Pete, kick me." He fell in a convenient 
position over the counter. Pete had never had such an 

opportunity in his life before. He retired to the 
''^* rear of the dance hall and poised himself for the 

effort, while one of the girls pinned the flag of 
Duff's country across his coat-tails. Pete ran and kicked 
vigorously on the flag and hard against the anatomy of Duff. 
The girls laughed and Duff was never so happy in all his life. 
" Kick me once more, Pete," and Pete repeated the opera- 
tion again and again, at the request of the Consul. The 
Consul laughed and seemed to enjoy the fun most of all. 
Pete leaned against a barrel of whiskey to rest. Fate with 
her wand tapped the corns on his toes and said, "Ah, Peter 
of the Nimble Shoon, you have this day won a proud distinc- 
tion. You have earned the title " Kicking Pete," which 
shall live in history." 



51 

Then the Consul would sing— He ponders deeply— Silence 
all— here are the lines: 

TO PI'^TK OF THE NIMBLE SHOON. 
I ;im the last of the fighting McDuffs, 
Alone on the Yu-li-Kon 
This was my Ru-bi-con. 
I came from the States to the British domain, 
They told me " K^//-may-come," 
Some say r('« '".^rt'-a-bum." 
I have no chance to my honor maintain. 

Refrain : Oh Peter, Peter kick me, 

The British ought to lick me. 
But they fear they might offend my Cousin Givadam. 

Oh Peter, Peter kick me, 

Oh Peter you're so slick! see? 
So run and jump and plant your feet upon me once again. 

The English have soldiers and mounted police, 

And they with Might-and-main 

Do us then Fight a-gain. 
My occupation is gone in a day. 

When me they Sight-a-gain 

I just get Tight-a-gain, 
They wink their eye and toddle away. 
Refrain : Oh Peter, Peter kick me, etc. 

A COSMOPOLITAN CAMP. 

There are peculiar characters among the miners. Some 
are men of superior mental attainments. It is not uncom- 
mon to meet men who are conversant with many languages. 
1 employed, as a day laborer, a man who was familiar with 
both ancient and modern languages. Upon his complaining 
of the injustice and thieving propensity of a partner, a fel- 
low countryman, a lady present suggested that he resent 
such treatment by threshing the fellow. He turned to her 
haughtily and said, '' Madam, I am a Greek." 



52 

An Italian boy, whom 1 employed to wash 
Divine art with ■,. , ■, r ^ ' ^J 

the dish water. ^^^^®^ ^"^ prepare fuel, would accom- 
pany his dish-washing feats with ex- 
planations as to the effect of atmosphere about Athenian 
statuary, which gives them a life-like appearance, and would 
speak familiarly of Mascagni and A'erdi, and the overtures 
and symphonies of classic composers; also discussing the 
possibilities of life to the possessor of one or of five dollars 
in Constantinople, Athens, Paris, Tokio or Bombay, as against 
New York and Chicago. 

. . One morning in Summer, as I stood in 

Divine music to ,, ■, -, u- i i • i. 

the mountains. ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^"^ ^^^^- 
ward down Dominion Creek, noting the 

undulating distances and verdure clad, flower bedecked 
mountain sides, the clear melody of an aria rung out upon 
the Summer air, in a well modulated and highly cultivated, 
tenor voice. The rhythm was maintained true to a possible 
orchestral accompaniment. At the close, miners, who were 
shovelling on the opposite side of the creek, responded with 
a hearty clapping of hands. I discovered, lying upon the 
mossy bank, about three hundred feet down the trail, an or- 
dinary looking man resting upon his pack. He responded 
with another song and then arose and passed out of sight? 
up toward the Great Dome, his pack upon his back. 

^, . Down in the mines all day, working by 

Divine melodies i.r, t 1,4. j? • i ji • t i. ^i. 

. - . the light of a smgle candle, is John the 

Swiss. At evening, when not too tired, 
he will come to my cabin with a large accordion, which he 
owns, and, by a most marvelous execution, will render not 
only the most charming Swiss Folk songs and plaintive melo- 
dies, but classic compositions and the best music of the 
present day. 




1 At thp windlass on Gold Bottom creek. ,„^,^„ 

2". Placing wood in a mine to make a flre to thaw the frozen 

'^l^'^'ill^&Tol'Z\n?^^^^^^ ground in a mine on Gold Hill. 
Thawing by steam. 




Clean-up on El Dorado. $1,000 In the pan. 



56 

One day a queer looking little old man, 
Divine sentiment „ j?. /? li. i ^ .., 

on the trail wearing a small, soft felt hat with a 

pointed crown, a canvas coat, and with 
trousers tucked in his boot tops, came to my cabin and lean- 
ing against the door said, '* Do you know what is the cun- 
ningest thing in the world?" I hesitated a moment, thinking 
of babies, kittens and dogs, but finally asked, " What is the 
cunningest thing in the world?" He continued — '*I was an- 
gry this afternoon, I was very angry, I never could fight in 
all my life. When I went to school the boys all licked me 
and some of the girls too, but to-day I was mad enough to 
fight. Ever since I camped here a little grey bird has come 
about my tent and I give her crumbs, finally she built a little 
nest in a space between three rocks. A woman, who lives 
in a tent near me, found the bird's nest, and when I was 
gone she carried it away. As soon as I learned where the 
nest was I went to the woman and told her she must bring it 
back. I told her the bird was flying about and chirping and 
that the nest was hers, the place in the rocks belonged to 
her and was her claim. The little bird was there before us 
and we had no right to disturb her. She gave me the nest 
with the three little white eggs, and I put it back where it 
belonged, and there it lies with the little mother-bird flitting 
about — come with me and I'll show you — the cunningest 
thing in the world." 

. Conversations in miners' cabins frequently 
. abounds in recitals of the greatest interest; 

of travels to remote regions, of incidents 
either perilous or remarkable, of history, of science, of edu- 
cation and of religion. I never passed an hour about the 
streets in Dawson, or on the trail, that I did not learn some- 
thing new and valuable to me. 



56 

ANOTHER KIND OF MINER, 
The success One of the most remarkable characters in 
of assurance. ^^^ Northland, aside from its kings, is 
McGillygalore, a very spry little miner. His name has been 
given him because of a certain large way he has of doing 
things. When he owns wild-cat claims he buys by the hun- 
dred, and has claims galore. When he does business with- 
out money, and buys claims without making cash payment 
he owns the confidence of the miners, and has friends galore. 
When he mines by machinery, he has steam-thawing plants 
galore. When he cannot pay, he has creditors galore, and 
lawsuits galore. When he does hydraulic mining he removes 
the dirt expensively and the pay galore is noticeably absent, 
but the other man has the labor bills galore to meet. He 
happens to be the double of a man who has a wife and chil- 
dren outside, so that raises a question of wives and children 
galore. 

The success When the Cheechargos in 1898 descended 
of oratory. upon Dawson as a cloud, they discovered 

on a high platform at the farther end of a big tent upon the 
main street, and against a large map of all the creeks of the 
district, two figures known as Punch and Judy. It was never 
established whether Punch acquired his name from some 
separate qualification, or merely in order that the little fel- 
low might be called Judy. Judy acquired his first literary 
experience in exploiting spitballs at school. He was after- 
ward promoted to the role of bill-poster, which gave him an 
exaggerated opinion of his own importance. Then he met 
his destiny in the person of a tall, large, beautiful woman; 
altogether too tall and large to waste much attention on the 
little fellow, but, in some way or other, she became his. 
There is, however, a tremendous debt to nature implied in 
such a combination, and the two are ever trying to palliate 



57 

the disparity by the constant use of the most extreme terms 
of endearment. They are vegetarians; a proper nourishment 
for such verdant efflorescense of affection. Here is one 
morning scene that occurred in their Hillside cabin: iShe, 
"Oh lover, here is a garnish of condensed milk for your 
mush." 

He : Dearest, why will you worry yourself in such anxiety 
for my welfare ? Sweetest, when I bought those frozen eggs, 
laid last Augut, it was expressly because I knew you liked 
salad. It is my only pleasure, dear, to think of your hap- 
piness." 

She: "Lover dear — and did you think of me away out in 
the cold when I was here at home mending your mocassins? 
— let me kiss you, da?-ling ! !" He: " Sweet star that shines 
for me alone in this log cabin — I cannot eat — it is food 
enough to behold the dainty mush that your sweet hands 
has prepared. I'll not devour the plate and spoon, nor long 
for meat at two dollars and a half a pound. Let's get the 
map, my love, and see where all of our wild-cat claims are 
lying" (the map is spread upon the table). She: ''Lover — 
dearest, let me find the places on the map. Oh, here is my 
mansion, and my coach and pair — and here a trip to Europe 
— here are diamonds and fine clothes — (He), "And all for 
you my dearesty sweetestj onliest one! Now let me say good- 
bye, with kisses all the way down the trail — I see the Chee- 
chargoes are out, they're going to hear me talk, so I must 
away" (She), "Oh lor-erl it was the sour dough's swear 
words that broke upon the fearful hollow of thine ear — be- 
lieve me, dear, it was no Cheechargo, and you know the 
sour-dough's will not listen to your talk on mining when 
they know that you only recently arose from bill-poster to 
news reporter, and from reporter to a miner is a long way " 
— (He), "Ta-ta — so long" — (She — weeping), "Sweet-dear- 
lover-duckie-dar-ling-oh — s-w-e-e-t — t-h-i-n-g ! " 



58 

This conversation is given to illustrate the pitiable strug- 
gle of romance for an existence in the atmosphere of Dawson. 

Judy proceeds to the auction room and climbs upon the 
platform. Punch is pointing to the map and explaining the 
formation of the earth, Judy responds by assuring the crowd 
that claims on Dedrasted Creek are selling at $25.00 each. 
It is an unknown creek. Eldorado was unknown two years 
ago ; this creek may be another Eldorado. It has never been 
prospected. No one knows what is in it. 

Some buy, others go wisely away. Sometimes the little 
fellow guesses fairly. He loves to talk confidentially to his 
audience. He cultivates a familiarity in his public talks, in 
contrast to the over-dignity of the British officials and busi- 
ness men. One day he ventured to tell his hearers that 
Swede Creek was staked in Winter, and in Spring they found 
sluice boxes, left by old miners, which proved that there was 
pay there. A sour-dough in the back part of the audience 
spoke up, " Little fellow, if the old miners went off and left 
that creek you need not waste your time trying to convince 
us it is any good." This broke up the meeting and there 
were no sales that day. 

The success Perhaps the most stupendous success in the 
of nerve. whole Yukon country is that which came to 

another small miner named Joe Lee. He had big ideas and 
was full of big schemes, and an inordinate self-conceit. He 
strutted about town and people laughed at his assurance, 
and at his assumed wisdom in regard to mines. He made a 
practice of stampeding every little creek, then he would 
perch himself upon a stake and tell exactly how much beans 
and bacon, or how many yards of silk, the gold in the pay 
streak would buy. People did not regard this trait of Joe's 
seriously, but he was not discouraged. When he had been 
obliged to lose all of his wild-cat claims from lack of repre- 



59 

sentation, and was almost compelled to go outside for want 
of means to stay, he had a very peculiar experience. The 
following is according to a lengthy report of it in a Dawson 
paper. The facts were evidently obtained from Joe, and the 
Editor is supposed to be in the deal. 

. , . It was Fall, the leaves were beginning to 

turn, the days were becoming shorter, and 
Joe had reached a dire emergency. In one desperate su- 
preme effort, before despair or flight, he went up to Grand 
Forks, sat on Gold Hill and ruminated. Jacob's dream was 
a marvel but there were no immediate results. The beauty 
of Joe's dream was the quick action which followed. He 
simply dreamed that the blank claims on Hunker Creek, from 
38 to 60, are not due, as is supposed by many, to the non- 
existence of a pay streak, but that the pay streak, in some 
way, got up over the mountain and became lost. Joe 
dreamed where it could be found. There are all sorts of 
hills, dry gulches, level elevations, bogs, woods and rocks 
between the gold-bearing creeks, but Joe and a friend were 
able to walk straight to the lost pay streak. They were not 
required to dig, they could, with the toes of their boots, kick 
up yellow gravel similar to that which usually lies above the 
pay streak. There is a superabundance of this kind of 
gravel in the Yukon country wherever there is a shortage 
of muck, and no one knows, or ever will know, how many 
pay streaks have not been uncovered. 

This was a sure thing, but how to protect such a gigantic 
interest from the interference of the Yukon officials, who 
might sneak out and stake it, became a serious problem to 
Joe and his friend. The friend must now be considered, for 
he had the money and Joe the dream. Joe dreamed again^ 
then went boldly to the Crown surveyor 
and said, '* I want some land surveyed for 



60 

a company that wants to get a hydraulic concession." The 
surveyor laughed, for he knew his bill for surveying would 
be $1500 cash, in advance, and the concession a matter of 
delay in dickering with officials at Ottawa. But Joe had not 
told all of his dream. Six days were allowed for surveying 
and then he employed a Dawson street orator to go out, in 
the style of ancient Athens, and find among the motly crowd 
one hundred men willing to sell their rights — not their birth- 
rights, which were possibly to work hard for the privilege 
of seeing how narrowly they could escape starvation, but 
the right the British Government allowed them of staking 
one claim in each district. In this case also he used the 
concession mind-cure. " The syndicate wished to secure the 
mine without delay and preferred to stake it." Dewey's 
Conquest of Manila was nothing compared to Joe's valorous 
advance with his army upon the unstaked ground, and his 
triumphant return with his men, who were doing the act for 
the sum of $35 each, not for glory. Joe was not safe until 
he had passed the official guns and looked down their muz- 
zles, but this he did boldly, convincing the officials that he 
had been out after a hydraulic reserve. He might succeed 
in fixing up a reserve, but the watchful recorder took the 
$1500 in fees for recording, unmindful of where the lost pay 
streak might be, or that each piece of paper at $15 might 
be just 250 feet square of that pay streak. Joe paid the 
British Government $4000. His army of men, who had 
staked and claimed the ground, received $3000. Joe and 
his friend own about a hundred claims. They have seen 
the yellow sand, but they have not seen the pay streak. 
They do not even know how deep it is, or what it averages to 
the pan. They say they know they have one million dollars 
in the scheme, all as the result of a dream, backed by the 
expenditure of $7000 in money. This illustrates the 




1. t.uiu iliii.-(u i^' the Grand Forks Hotel buili ;■:, :.I....^ Mulrooney. 
She derived |5U.i)UU profit from the bar and bunks and restaurant during 
the Winter of '97-'98. 

2. View of Grand Forks from Gold Hill showing (1) Grand Forks Hotel. 




X. Street scene in Dawson. 

2. Showing crowd about the door of the Recorder' 



office, waiting to 
be admitted, a few at a time, to record claims. Men have waited three 
days in line to gain admission. The next building is the Canadian Bank 
of Commerce. 



63 

chances of a mining camp, and shows how fortunes may be 
made or lost, and how the very boldness of a scheme, as the 
Dawson paper states, wins a sure success. It was but four- 
teen days from the dream on Gold Hill to the triumphal 
march past the official muzzles. The world can laugh no 
longer at Joe; he has done what neither capital nor expert 
ability could do, or would dare attempt. 
The only In the early days of the Klondyke excite- 

Casey ment a printer's boy named Casey, in one 

of the coast cities outside, decided that he would not be a 
*' devil" any longer, but would embark in business for himself. 
He bought a barrel of mineral water and started northward, 
venturing the uncertain feat of having the barrel dropped 
overboard opposite Juneau and of rescuing and towing it 
ashore, by means of a canoe, during the night, to avoid an 
unprofitable interview with the Custom oflicer. The venture 
succeeded, as did other similar ventures, until one day the 
officials became aggressive in their efforts to interview 
Casey, when he was compelled to drop into the water 
between the ship and the Treadwell Dock, at Douglas Island. 
Casey clung to a post until, chilled by the cold water, he 
was almost exhausted. He managed to attract the atten- 
tion of the occupants of a passing boat, and was rescued. 
He then decided to change his business. It was warm Sum- 
mer weather and Juneau was without ice. Casey made a 
trip to a glacier a few miles distant, in a small boat, bring- 
ing a few hundred pounds of ice back to the town. He 
carried the ice about in a wheel barrow, and transacted busi- 
ness under a sign bearing this inscription: — ''Casey, Ice 
Dealer. Ice by the pound, ton or berg." Casey soon 
accumulated sufficient means to enable him to go to Dawson, 
where he succeeded in making a good living, but he did not 
acquire a fortune until one day a King of the Klondyke told 



64 

him he would give ten thousand dollars for a certain claim 
on Dominion, commissioning Casey to act as broker in the 
matter. Casey bought the claim for seven thousand dollars, 
thus making three thousand dollars in a day. He sub- 
sequently married an estimable young lady. Casey, upon 
the occasion of meeting an old friend, concluded the recital 
of these remarkable experiences in his life as follows: — 
"When I closed that deal with Mac I felt good. I had 
three thousand dollars. More money than I ever had before. 
I tell you the flame that old Nero kindled in Rome wasn't a 
candle-light to the illumination that I started in Dawson 
that night. At four o'clock the next morning I was full and 
hadn't a cent. However I pulled myself together and got 
a job at the Aurora. One day I saw the girl who is now my 
wife walking in company with some people whom I knew. 
I wanted to meet her, so I watched my chance and got an 
introduction, and afterwards called on her. I just did my 
best, but I don't see how she ever had me. She is so much 
better than I am, and so much above me, that words don't 
express it. She is pure gold and I am like pig iron. One is 
dear by the ounce and the other is cheap by the ton." 




o "2 



£3 P, 



Wd 



5 5" 







THE DANCE HALL GIRL 




Dance hall girls on the Chilkoot trail stampeding to Dawson. 

She knows The habits of the Northern dance-hall girls 

the men. afford a most striking study of the Scarlet 

Life. These girls possess a wisdom that is worthy of exer- 
cise in a better cause. In the game of living chess it may 
require ability to corner, to jump or to vanquish kings, but 
it necessitates a crude sort of finessing to secure a peaceful 
and undisputed possession of their kingdoms. Dance-hall 
girls are not necessarily entertaining in conversation. They 
are seldom beautiful or well-dressed, but they are thoroughly 
versed in all the details of their business, which is to use the 
secret knowledge which they possess as to the possibilities 
of these men, to their own advantage financially. Watch 
one of them in her natural environment, the saloon, the 
dance hall and bar room. She is all nerve as she enters a 
room and surveys the waiting crowd. 



67 

She chooses The elderly man leans back in his chair and 
him. displaying a heavy gold watch chain, 

''Looks good to her." Hootalink Hal has on new knicker- 
bockers and plaid golf hose; as he leans against the bar she 
knows he is posing for her admiration. The fellow in muck, 
a-lucks and overalls, with a red sweater and cap, would give 
his last nugget if she would but go to the bar and drink with 
him. Texas Harry, with the blue shirt and white tie, will be 
lonesome and disappointed if she ignores him. There is Jim, 
with his brown coat and brass buttons, lounging on the bal- 
cony railing with a cigar in his mouth; but he is waiting for 
"Little Annie" who has not yet arrived. The dance-hall girl 
is always prompt to act. There is absolutely nothing to fear. 
She will meet no repulse. The elderly man with the watch 
chain need not wait long. She is soon favoring him with 
flattering attentions. He is seated in the middle of the room 
and the men who have not been marked for attention gravi- 
tate to the sides, where they stand as wall fl )wers and look 
lonesome. The M. P. now has his arm about the waist of 
Annie, who seems not averse to such a lover-like demonstra- 
tion. The love scene of a farce is being played upon the 
stage, but its action pales to insignificance when compared 
with this real life, although Dawson's stage exhibitions are 
in themselves no ordinary entertainments. One large, fat 
girl, dressed like a French doll, in a gay-colored pinafore 
reaching to her knees, and with black stockings and red slip- 
pers, her hair hanging in short, knotty curls, sits on a small 

table swinging her feet, and claiming the 
- ^ attention of two admirers sitting on either 

side. Her bare right arm is about the neck 
of one, while with her left hand she pats the cheek of the 
other, and the two men note each shade of difference in her 
attentions with all the ardor of race-track fiends watching 



their favorite horses in a fairly equal race. The dance-hall 
girl is industrious. She is Inever vacillating or undecided; 
she is persevering. She does not flit about the room bestow- 
ing a smile here, a caress there and again a pouting neglect. 
When she selects her victim she stays with him. The more 
marked her favor the greater is his triumph, he does not 
admire her; he does not love her; He needs her to complete 
a spectacle of himself as a favored beau. 

The play is over and the floor is cleared for dancing. 
The crier calls for recruits, as the salary of the musicians is 
accumulating. The elderly man pays a dollar for a ticket 
and tries one waltz with the girl who is yet in his possession. 

CI. Afterwards he takes her to the bar and 

bne perseveres. , , . , , „ 

orders drinks amountmg to two dollars; the 

barkeeper gives the girl a check for one-quarter of that 

amount. This is where her income begins, and is the sweet 

reward of all her labor and her care. If she has wisely 

selected a victim, possessing more appetite than agility, she 

can easily land him in a box, where the exercise of dancing 

will be uncalled for. The beginning of a box-experience is 

the most difficult for a dance-hall girl, but after a few visits 

of the waiter, champagne flows freely. The girl is always 

self-possessed, and when her victim is a little confused from 

wine she is all tact. She orders more wine. The waiter 

brings the glasses filled, also a bottle half empty, upon a 

tray. He places the glasses upon the table and the girl bids 

him take himself off without loss of time. The victim 

drinks, not observing the girl's glass is full 
The wflit.er 
. I of ice, and forgetting the unused wine in the 

bottle the waiter carried away, and which 

is duly charged to him at the rate of fifteen dollars a bottle. 

A lively conversation ensues, and the seemingly thirsty girl 

calls for a new bottle of wine. The same scene is re-enacted 



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71 

with the waiter. The victim is charged over and over again 
with the same bottle of wine, and the girl of genius has her 
pocket full of checks. The night passes in revelry, but the 
victim is the only one that revels. The waiter attends 
strictly to accounting the few bottles of wine really used 
and the many empty empty ones, or "dead men," served as 
new bottles. The girl, and and each and every one of her, 
in all the dance-halls and theatres, never overlooks the 
checks. As morning dawns the victim is easily transported 
from the box to a restaurant, where this dance-hall genius 
shines in a new role. The victim is lured into a private stall 
or box where the waiter appears to take their order. The 
charmed one tosses a bill of fare to the girl, saying "Order 
what you like, and the same for me. This is a welcome priv- 
ilege, and she orders, as near as possible, the whole bill of 
fare. It contains scarcely an item less than one dollar in 
price. The man pays the bill and she gets the checks just 
the same at the bar. In a few instances the girls are entirely 
free from further complications than the public demonstra- 
tions I have described. In such cases they are not success- 
ful financially. To lead a victim into an extravagont expen- 
diture of money usually requires promise and a very flexible 
compromising social etiquette. Tbe man recovers his head 

He's better now ^^ *™^' ^^^ ^® ^^^ *^^ drunk to ever know 
just how foolish he had been. However, if 
he had not been worked by the girl who was sober, he would 
have been with drunken companions and his money would 
have disappeared. The victims are, in turn, of every grade, 
even to men of the highest social, business and official stand- 
ing. Inquiry as to why men crave to take part in such pub- 
lic exhibitions resulted in the statement, by the demi-monde 
themselves, that these men consider it a mark of distinction 
to be caressed by women in public. They like to have other 



72 

men see them thus honored! A back door 
They are so entrance to a saloon or a disreputable 

house would be unused in Dawson. Men of 
high standing walk upon the streets with women of easy vir- 
tue, and talk with them in public places. The ordinary crowd 
must give way to these women in banks, offices and stores. 

The lack these men feel of home surround- 
They are so ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ suitable female companionship, 

may augment the opportunities of the 
dance-hall girl, but her victims are seldom, if ever, influenced 
by a feeling of affection for her. A true solution of the 
problem is, without doubt, that an atmosphere of vice and of 
license exists in Dawson which amounts to contagion, and, 
under its influence, men are not really themselves. Vice, in 
its over-power, exercises a hypnotic influence that paralyzes 
the judgment and neutralizes the more refined tastes. This 
is proven by the fact that some men do publicly in Dawson 
what they could not be induced to do privately outside. 
Steamers have stood at their wharves in Dawson, their decks 
disgraced by conduct on the part of departing passengers 
which the same persons would disavow outside. The same 
. h ff ^^owd would land in Seattle with utmost 

decorum. No one would there be stricken 
by any misgiving or have any regrets to restrain, but all 
would be removed from the atmosphere of extreme vice that 
stimulated them to improper demonstrations in Dawson; 
entering upon the changed atmosphere of Seattle restored 
them in a degree to a normal condition. 

Just how far reaching the effect of the Scarlet Life will 
be, no one has attempted to prophesy. It would not seem 
unreasonable to say that some taint of its effect will con- 
tinue throughout the lives of those who have come under its 
influence. There are women of all classes in Dawson. A 



?3 

few men have brought their real wives from the outside. 
Some are living with women who are not their wives but they 

acknowledge them as such. Many men 
Thcv'rc sorn6' 

^. . , consort with women whom they call house- 

times mixed. , , rt 1 ,. . 

keepers or cooks, beveral men, livmg in 

one cabin out on the creeks, or in town, often hire one cook. 
Housekeepers and cooks sometimes live honorably and some- 
times they do not. Girls and women are often enticed, by 
friendly overtures on the part of miners, to go out on the 
creeks as cooks and housekeepers, expecting a share of the 
gold cleaned up. After working hard for many months they 
get little or nothing and find that they have been deceived. 
Occasionally a girl or woman becomes a favored guest in a 
miner's cabin, and is waited upon carefully by the miner and 
rewarded reasonably at the clean up. In some cases the 
gain is secured by shrewd management on the part of the 
woman that amounts to downright robbery and treachery, 
^ but there are very few women who have 

\. ^ " profited at the hands of miners after a con- 
ers then. . ., , . 

tmued relation. If a man spends ten dol- 
lars in entertaining a woman, he usually reports that he has 
spent fifty. The public women are poorly paid, and are at 
their wits end to devise means of avoiding the impositions of 
men who are their patrons. They are the easy prey of the 
trades people, and a source of great revenue to the govern- 
ment, as they are subject to a tax of twenty dollars a month 
for physicians' fees. They establish themselves in one quar- 
ter of the town, and when business houses spring up about 
them, the government passes a law removing them to the 
center of a vacant district. Landlords hasten hither to se- 
cure the lots and to build houses, which they rent them at 
exhorbitant prices. Business houses are built in the new 
neighborhood and the Crown vacant property is sold. It is 



74 

estimated that the Crown realizes about a hundred thousand 
dollars a year from physicians' fees alone, 
their fines ^^ ^^^ service ordered to public women. 

These women are seldom arrested, except 
regularly about once a month, when they are fined fifty-six 
dollars each. They seem to be favored by the Government 
officials in staking, recording and holding claims. Two sisters 
robbed a man of eight thousand dollars, but they escaped 
punishment by restoring part of the money and leaving the 
country. Their crime was counted less than that of an hon- 
est married pair who appropriated, on the trail, a rag from 
an abandoned tent. They were sentenced to eighteen 
months imprisonment with hard labor for that offense. 

In May and June, when the dumps are 
^ sluiced, and the gold clean-up is in prog- 

ress, these women migrate to the creeks. 
The road houses are well supplied with whiskey, and large 
tents are erected in convenient places for dance-halls. On 
the Queen's Birthday, '99, a man who is well known, and has 
a family in one of the coast cities outside, brought 
eleven prostitutes over the Great Dome, on pack horses, to 
a road house near Upper Discovery on Dominion Creek, about 
forty miles from Dawson. That night four thousand dollars 
were taken in at the bar and the festivities continued during 
the next day and night. A girl whom I will call Flossie, 
alone, carried five hundred dollars in Dominion gold back to 
Dawson. Men are cruel in their persecutions of these 
women, and seem to delight in cursing and ridiculing them 
publicly when they have exhausted all other means of amuse- 
ment. So bitter is the punishment meted out to them that 
the poor, degraded creatures break down and cry when 
scorned by men who have been parties to their ruin. They 
spend their money for gay apparel, seldom reserving any 




1. Weighing gold in the Aurora. 

2. A C. Co.'s department store, showing the Monte Carlo in the 



distance 




1, Oshiwora.— The Dawson White chapel. 

2. Dawson banquet table. The first man at the right-Lee an 



Eldorado king, spent $1,200 at this banquet. 



77 

part of it as a means of support in case of illness. Suicide 
often ends these lives so full of hard experiences and keen 
regret. The hillside above Dawson is dotted over with 
graves of these unfortunates who have died of disease and 
by their own hand. 

When the population of Dawson was estimated at 25,000 
the demi monde numbered about 400. Their red curtained 
cabins were upon the principal business streets. During the 
Winter of '98 -'99 they were by official edict retired to 
Fourth and Fifth Avenues, back of the center of the town. 
Each one occupies a little house twelve feet wide on the 
street and extending back twenty, thirty, or forty feet. 
The walls of the houses are covered with cloth and papered 
with wall paper. Lace curtains, rugs, and pictures complete 
the furnishings. The houses are unpainted and are erected 
by the occupants at a cost of about $800. The women are 
compelled to pay $30 a month rent for each narrow lot. 
They are kind to each other in case of sickness or mis- 
fortune in a seeming effort to avert the chilling effect of 
the coldness of the world. 

The district occupied by them is called Oshiwora, or the 
Dawson Whitechapel. 

MACQUES 

The acme of vice in Dawson is represented 
e acques , ^^^^ evolution of a small army of men 
arc viiG« 

known as Macques. These attach them- 
selves to disreputable woman for the purpose of acquiring 
an easy living from their earnings. If they are lovers they 
are also hard masters. When a Macque once obtains author- 
ity in the life and affairs of a woman, he takes possession of 
her earnings and uses them for gambling, or for his own 
needs. He watches his victim that she does not escape, and 
he chides her and restricts her in her movements to suit his 



78 

fancy. The Macque sometimes solicits patronage for her. 
The woman is his slave, and she seldom escapes from his per- 
sistent grasp. 

The honest wife in Dawson is unnoticed and forgot. The 
pretended wife of a man who is otherwise married is hardly 
a public affair; the woman grafter is a triumph of greed; 
the well dressed prostitute posing as a society woman is a 
pitiable fraud; the public woman is usually the one who suf- 
fers most from her acts of vice. Drunkards are low in the 
moral scale, but the Macque stands pre-eminently the vilest 
emanation of the vilest essence of the vilest place on earth. 
History, both sacred and profane, has ac- 

^ *\ ® corded to woman a capacity for lowest 

worst. 

degredation. Partly on account of the 

higher elevation on which she stands, making a greater con- 
trast to her depth of shame if she falls, and partly because 
it seems more vile to sin for money than from passion. But 
it has been demonstrated in Dawson that the level which up- 
bore woman, in her most hopelessly submerged condition, 
was only the muck on the surface of vileness, and down 
through a depth of gravel, far, far beneath, on the solid bed- 
rock, and working in the pay streak, was the Macque. 

Thus does crime and Scarlet vice bask in the sunlight of 
Dawson, the beautiful Northland Metropolis. 

A sad phase of this life is the fate of the 
rospec ing or j-ggp^g^^ble middle-aged women, who came 
to the Yukon expecting to marry rich 
miners, but only to find that rich miners seek wives either 
in the dance-hall society or outside. These women have 
struggled hard, amid great privations, to even sustain life. 
They have done laundry work and have become cooks in 
road houses, or in miners' cabins, some have been more un- 
fortunate. 



79 

T. . jr , The saddest phase of the Scarlet life is the 

I hey were false. , . , , 

separations which have occuired in respec- 
table families. In many instances men who have acquired 
wealth have cast aside their plain middle-aged wives, who 
have shared their struggles in poverty, and have married 
younger and more showy women. A Hunker miner went 
outside and secured a divorce and married a younger woman 
— his original wife remained and supported herself by keep- 
ing a road house. A venerable, gray-haired man, connected 
with one of the great companies, secured $100,000 as his 
private fortune while engaged in manipulating the com- 
pany's affairs. He was living in a cabin with a young girl 
as housekeeper, when his aged wife arrived, quite ignorant 
of the condition of affairs. He promptly sent his wife 
money and told her not to leave the steamer but to return to 
the outside, which she did. 

An old farmer and his wife, from one of 
^I2QQ the Eastern States, came to the Klondyke 

in the hope of making enough money to 

pay off a $1500 mortgage on their farm. The couple made 

$1200 in a road house during the winter of '98'-99. In the 

spring the woman was enticed away by a worthless man, who 

gained possession of the money, which she took with her, 

and at once deserted her and she was abandoned to a life of 

vice. 

A young couple from a city in the Eastern 
He wds 

. . States came to Dawson in search of fortune. 

The wife was employed as housekeeper in 

the cabin of some prominent business men who are very 

near to official circles; the husband had other employment. 

The wife was given carte hlanrke in the affairs of the cabin 

as to expense. The husband soon left for the outside, 

broken-hearted; the wife explained that she had decided 



80 

that she would not live with him any longer — that he was 
ashamed of such things and had gone. Her reign in the 
cabin of the men of high social and business standing will 
soon be over and she will be abandoned to her fate; which 
may be in a descending scale toward lower grades of soci- 
ety. 

A respectable, middle-aged woman is seek- 
too o\a\n ^^^ employment as a laundress, while her 

wealthy husband, who cast her out, is liv- 
ing in all the luxury that his newly acquired wealth can 
afford. 
Their prey. Young men of high social standing, but 

unfortunate financially, are open to the 
temptation of becoming dependants or macques of disrepu- 
table women who have money. 

Thus does the Scarlet Life hold for each one a possible 
place as the master or maker of vice, or as its victim. 
Noble lives No th withstanding this fact, out upon every 

trail I have met men, often bearing heavy 
burdens, who, as they sat upon the ground or against a tree 
to rest, would refer to wife and family outside, and, as they 
related their hard struggles and bitter disappointments^ 
tears would fall and it wag easily perceived that they were 
not open to the influence of vice. 

Several instances of this kind so impressed me that I 
have written them in short stories. 




i^ 



Parka of asbestos-tanned sheepskin lined with silesia, with mittens and 
moccasiLS, the costume I wore during winter in Dawson, being sufficient 
protection from cold ranging from 20° to 60° below zero. L. B. V. 




The Yukon British Debtors' Prison— The Midnigbt Dome to 
the right of the flag; the Moosehead Mountain and Slide to the left. 
Dawson is below. L- B. V. 



83 

IN A YIKON BRITISH DEBTORS' PRISON. 

I was proudly free ; my freedom was the 

only thing of which I ever boasted. When 

I had wealth and every prospect of success, and I met on the 

street, in offices, or in places of business, friends who might 

inquire, "Well Mrs. V., how is everything going to-day?" it 

was my habit to answer, "Thank you Mr , I am welL 

1 am happy and I am free. I aimed to be free from selfishness 
and from envy, free from the power of those who would ex- 
hibit vicious tendencies. I tried to live free in the enjoy- 
ment of life's best gifts, and superior to its ills and misfor- 
tunes. 

I chose It was a pleasure for me to realize that I 

my way. ^ould choose my hour for rising, the hour 

and place for dining, and my every occupation. I could buy 
material possessions with gold, and I could sell my possess- 
ions for gold, but my sack was soon forgotten in its hiding- 
place. The flattering attention of friends to me, I knew 
would soon be merged in flattering attentions to others. The 
romance of my life is a sad, sweet memory. So I came to 
value the resources of self, in making a new life and happi- 
ness of various conditions that existed in my surroundings^ 
and to have a realizing sense of a personal freedom that sur- 
rounded me as an atmosphere, the inspirations of which be- 
came as an elixir of life. 

They took Some months before, I had lost my all 

my all. through a legal robbery. Previous to that, 

in the Autumn before, (September 1898,) I had laid the foun- 
dation from which new persecutions were to arise, in a busi- 
ness transaction, in which the only gain I expected was to 
transfer a few thousand dollars of outside money to my pres- 
ent location. 



84 

.. , An unfortunate man appealed to me in 

great distress. Nature had permitted an 
awful menace to his freedom in a constantly recurring epi- 
lepsy. He had allied himself with a cruel partner, who had 
wronged him grievously, and creditors were out on every 
trail. He had a mine just prospected enough to prove it 
had rich pay. He implored me to take the property at any 
price, and upon any terms, only to give him money to go 
outside, as that alone would save his life. I did not care to 
buy the property at what I considered the high valuation of 
twelve or fifteen thousand dollars for a half interest, neither 
did I care to force the unfortunate man to what might prove 
a wanton sacrifice of a valuable interest, as he believed the 
property worth $20,000 for a half interest. So I agreed to 
advance him some money on the property, taking a deed of 
it as security. He proposed that if I would increase the 
amount to four thousand dollars, and would use the proceeds 
of the mine, which was being worked, and which he guaran- 
teed would amount to two or three three thousand dollars 
before winter, in paying the most importunate of his credi- 
tors, that he would take the four thousand dollars and go to 
London and would sell a list of unproved claims, which he 
owned, at a profit of about sixty thousand dollars, and upon 
his return would divide the proceeds of the transaction with 
me, and would take the claim and pay me all I had invested. 
He had spent the previous winter in London, and showed let- 
ters from responsible persons who seemed to be willing to 
take the unproved claims. I neither expected nor depended 
upon profits from so uncertain a source, but I did expect to 
have my money returned to me at the clean-up, and I did not 
anticipate any inroads upon my personal funds to satisfy his 
creditors. I was not legally bound to pay those debts. This 
man, whom I will call Lyle, can neither read nor write, ex- 



85 

cept to sign his name, and the papers and legal documents 
signed upon this occasion were drawn by myself, and he 
signed them without having them examined by any other per- 
son; which, to me, seemed an indisputable evidence of good 
faith, and disarmed my judgment as to necessary precautions. 
And then Lyle magnified his need, until the four 

he hoped. thousand granted became five thousand five 

hundred, and then he made a lease of one hundred feet of the 
claim to a friend, who advanced one thousand dollars, which 
was paid to Lyle, making six thousand five hundred dollars, 
which Lyle carried outside with him, part of which, how- 
ever, consisted of my personal cheques on banks outside. 
In order to give him credit abroad, Lyle desired to have the 
one-half interest in the claim appear on the record as twenty 
thousand dollars, its true value according to his estimate, 
and asked to have me make a note for fourteen thousand 
dollars secured by mortgage on the one-half interest, which 
would show the transaction consistent, in his abstracts. The 
mortgage was not made a claim on the dumps and was not 
due until July 14th, which is after the clean-up. This also 
disarmed suspicion on my part. Lyle's original intention 
was to fulfill his agreement. The five hundred dollars that 
he had in excess of the recorded price of twenty thousand 
dollars, was not credited on the mortgage note. Lyle 
had stated that the claim was three hundred feet in length, 
but, when measured to assign the ground to different laymen, 
the claim proved to be but two hundred and seventy feet in 
length, so that the price was far in excess of prevailing 
prices for full claims on Dominion Creek, mid-way between 
the discoveries, either at that time or since. Although the 
claim afterwards proved very rich, and worth $20,000 for a 
half interest, it was not in time to avert the sacrifice to me. 
It was known in time to have enabled Lyle to protect me 
and to gain several thousand dollars to his own interest. 



'Twas better After the signing of the papers with Lyle, 
then. jjj tjjjg transaction, Lyle informed his cred- 

itors that he had made arrrangements with me to pay the 
claims, and at once departed on an up river steamer for the 
outside. The next day a messenger came from the mines 
with information that work was suspended. As water had 
penetrated to the drift, further work was impossible until 
winter. Very soon Lyle's creditors came. They were men 
who had been doing representation work upon the unproved 
claims, and their demands were imperative. Legal proceed- 
ings would involve Lyle's property and would ruin him. I 
also discovered that if I refused to pay these men they 
would report upon the streets that I owed them, and could 
or would not pay them, not explaining that the debts were 
Lyle's and not mine. He had told them that he left means 
with me to pay. To avoid injury to my own credit and bus- 
iness, 1 paid these debts at a cost of two thousand dollars, 
and at a great sacrifice. This was what caused my lack of 
resource in meeting labor claims later, which were precipi- 
tated upon me suddenly, in violation of a direct agreement 
by these men to wait for their wages until the clean-up. 
They did When my outfit and belongings had been 

not know. taken away from me in February, my em- 

ployees had ignored the Dominion claim and had repudiated 
it on account of the fourteen thousand dollar mortgage 
which appeared on the record. They did not learn of my 
conditional agreement with Lyle, and the property was left 
undisturbed, especially as during the winter the laymen on 
the claim had reported very unsatisfactory prospects. The 
amount necessary to provide for my expenses on a trip to 
Dominion, and for a stay during the clean-up, with wages 
necessary for a competent man to look after the work, was 
fully twelve hundred dollars. I was absolutely without 



87 

means. Having learned, by a severe experience, the danger 
of incurring labor debts, I decided not to attempt to incur 
debt on this account. It became a question as to either 
abandoning the property, or of making an attempt to sell, 
subject to my agreement with Lyle. I found that to be al- 
most impossible. Business men usually assumed that Lyle 
would come in over the ice, as I had sent letters and tele- 
grams to him, advising him of my business difficulties. They 
also believed that, as I had no adequate means of compelling 
Lyle to fulfil his agreement with me, Lyle would take an un- 
fair advantage. The mortgage did not compel a transfer to 
Lyle of the proceeds of the dumps, and it was not due until 
July 14th, which was after sluicing time. It was a mortgage 
on the claim, but it was assumed by business men that Lyle» 
upon his arrival, and by the aid of a resourceful lawyer, 
would obtain possession of the property, by attachment, or 
injunction, or some other process, available in the Yukon 
territory when disputes arise as to property, and would re- 
fuse to pay labor bills or to make a just settlement. I finally, 
by representing strongly that Lyle would make a fair settle- 
ment, as I believed he would, sold the property to an honor- 
able man, subject to my agreement with Lyle. The con- 
sideration, under the circumstances, was small, especially as 
the laymen reported a clean-up of possibly but six or eight 
thousand dollars. The new owner B incurred the expense of a 
trip to Dominion, and a stay of nine weeks for the clean-up. 
I went to represent Lyle's interest, giving my time in ac- 
counting. The amount cleaned up was, to my surprise, about 

thirty-two thousand dollars, one half of 
.® ayman s ^^ich was retained by the laymen, ten per 

cent was paid in royalties to the govern- 
ment, and two thousand dollars of the owner's share was 
returned to the laymen who had advanced that amount. 



88 

When Lyle returned after the clean-up, instead of coming to 
me to learn the condition of his business, he went to lawyer 
Grillem, the same lawyer who had acted for my former em- 
ployees. What Grillem told Lyle no one will ever know, but, 
as a result, Lyle came to Dominion and made a very impos- 
ing entrance into my cabin in company with two witnesses. 
They seated themselves upon boxes, one at either side, and 
one directly in front of me. Lyle spoke as follows: — "I 
want you to pay me nine thousand dollars. 
of Lvie ^ ^^^® ^^^^ ^^ claims in London for sev- 

enty-five thousand dollars. The claims in- 
clude a quartz claim back in Juneau, and I need nine thousand 
dollars to pay for the quartz claim, when I will go to Seattle 
and transfer the property, and get my money, and bring you 
back your thirty thousand dollars profit, or I want to know 
whether you will take wages for what you have done in look- 
ing after my business, or an interest in my profits." I was 
too much surprised to give a rational reply, but asked the 
witnesses to withdraw as I had no business with them. I 
then asked Lyle if he had contracts that he could show, or 
if his English clients had deposited money, but he replied, 
''No, I had to come back to see if the property was all 
right." I asked him to take the Dominion claim and settle 
with the man to whom I had transferred it, according to his 
agreement with me, but he left the cabin without replying. 

. , Next morning he proceeded to the police 

Now Lyle ^ * i 

commands station, about a mile distant, and soon I 

was requested by a written message from 
the Captain of the M. P., sent by a private messenger, to 
come to headquarters. Lyle was there and proposed to 
arrest me. I had no one to advise me, but I asked the cap- 
tain to do me the justice of requiring from Lyle a state- 
ment, under oath, of some charge against me by which I 



could legally be arrested. The captain asked Lyle if he 
could sign such a document, when Lyle answered, " Til sign 
anything, go on and make out the papers." I was excused 
from the room, but for some reason no charge was made. I 
was required to wait several hours, or until about 4 p. m., 
after which hour I started to go to Dawson, walking thirty 
miles to the mouth of Hunker Creek, and 
reaching my cabin in Dawson before eve- 
ning the next day. Legal advice, and the 
efforts of friends, failed to effect any settlement or concili- 
ation. It transpired that Grillem could only advise Lyle that 
my note for fourteen thousand dollars to him was an appar- 
ent evidence of debt. The capias law made it a crime for a 
debtor to leave the country. If I would but attempt to leave 
the country, I could be arrested and imprisoned. Bonds 
could be exacted which would make the bondsmen respon- 
sible for the debt. If the bonds were not forthcoming, I 
could be held one year in prison until the authorities were 
satisfied that I had no means with which to pay, and that no 
one would assist me. 

A crime Their only hope was that I w^ould attempt 

to leave. to leave the country, giving them the op- 

portunity to arrest me. They watched and they waited, 
hoping that I would dare this pitfall on a hidden trail, but I 
could not go from lack of means. So intense was their 
desire that they concluded to forego the necessary evidence 
and assume that I was going. Lyle found two friends, one 
to whom he afterwards transferred a half interest in a Creek 
claim on Upper Bonanza, and another one, a man whom I will 
call Soy, a former layman on the property, who was soon 
afterwards in possession of the Dominion claim, who signed 
false statements that I was about to leave the country. 



90 

And Dpr*iirv ^^^^ incurred no responsibility and made 
no oath, but gave an "information" as to 
what the others said. The judge issued them their capias 
and assigned to their service a constable. 

On a warm, sunny afternoon in June, I was sitting in my 
cabin writing; free, despite the misfortunes I had sustained, 
and thinking of home and native land, and how, from lack 
of means, I was powerless to take a step thitherward. 

I called, "Come in," in answer to a knock at the door^ 

. when Constable S. entered. He had a war- 

^. ' rant for my arrest. My right of freedom 

had been sworn away in perjury. To prison 

I must go because a man had averred that I intended to 

leave the country. 

. . , Gracious heaven! that America should be 

such a fossized civilization! Why did she 
not invest me as a criminal for coming here? But no, I had 
been permitted to take my good twenty-five thousand Ameri- 
can dollars and spend them in an outfit. I had paid duties to 
the Yukon British; 1 had paid my license and all dues and 
expenses; I had submitted to legal extortion and had lost 
all; I had lost about nine thousand dollars on the Dominion 
claim. Though having produced $32,000, the claim was at 
that time considered by many to be but prospected, the 
bulk of the gold being already in the mine, the mortgage 
should be better security than to menace the freedom of a 
woman already almost dependent upon charity for a living. 
The lawyers Lawyers were directing Lyle's attention to 
wanted it. me, to punish, reserving the claim for 

themselves for profit. Lyle could have obtained possession 
of the claim forcibly, by allowing the balance due me above 
what the new owner had received, then not over $5,000, and 
he might have compromised for less. Lyle could have sold a 



1 1 

C en; 








Upper half of No. 1 shows a bank of the Klondyke where I slept without 
shelter; lower half, Bonanza Trail where I was thrown from a pack-horse. 
No. 2 shows the same pack-horse upon the Bonanza Trail near the Klondyke 
ferry. No. 3 was taken as I was returning from a sketching trip across a 
bridge over Dominion Creek. No. 4 shows ice 15 ft. thick at No, 14 Dominion 
caused by continual flow of water in winter from a soda spring. No. 5 is a 
view of a log cabin near the catholic church in Dawson, for which I paid $60 
per month rent. No. 6 was taken as I was standing upon a pile of logs In 
Klondyke City to obtain a view of Klondyke river and mountain beyond. V. 



93 

half interest to a former layman for $10,000, making $7,000 
profit; or by working the claim he could have secured 
$4,000 taken out by Soy and his partner lawyers, in a short 
time of Summer work, and a possible $30,000 during the 
winter; but his attention was directed to a false demand, in 
which there was no equity nor profit to himself, except as 
someone might place bonds for me. 

The lawyers must do something for Lyle, and to avoid a 
sensible act in obtaining possession of the claim peaceably 
for Lyle, they sought to arrest me and put me in prison, and 
exalt Lyle to the important role of accuser, in such a case. 
Otherwise, placing Lyle in a position where he would be 
jumped and out of the game, and thus my free choice was 
given over, in deference to British law and justice. 
The trail leads The trail was chosen for me, and it led 
to prison. promptly across the narrow, swinging 

bridge, above the noisy, splashing waters of the Klondyke, 
wearily along the dusty roadway, set with shops and stalls of 
the Cheechargoes selling outfits, humhly past the Court- 
house, the British Temple of Justice, and sadly to the un- 
welcome entrance of the low, log building with iron grat- 
ings at its windows, that looked out like crabs' eyes, from 
under the edge of a flat roof covered with dirt. 
A pause in The prison! A tomb for the living! Worse 

existence. than the silent tomb, the grave, for there 

the occupant is never conscious of imprisonment. It makes 
no difference to him whether his body be embalmed, frozen, 
petrified or mummified; whether it lie in state on exhibition, 
in a crematory, in a cache or in the earth. This tomb for 
the living is different, as I found when once within the vile 
enclosure. 

I passed along before a row of locked cells, from the 
gratings of which the prisoners peered at me curiously. 1 



94 

felt that life, which had been rendered so sweet to me by 
freedom, was pierced through, when the lever clanged, and 
the grated door closed behind the guard. 

Search where I would within the prison, so far as I was, 
permitted to go, 1 could find no beauty, no companionship. 
Divine influence did not seem to penetrate to such a depth, 
I could find nothing to answer to my need of life. I experi- 
enced a pause in existence. Physical routine remained as a 
condition whereby life might be resumed at some future day. 
A realization of my awful situation pressed upon me in 
in thoughts like these: — 

The soul My surroundings are indeed strange! Yon- 

to itself. der grated door does not open at my volit- 

ion. Even the guard inside has no key. He is in for two 
hours. He sold his freedom and consented to be locked in 
this corridor, for twenty-eight cents. My freedom is lost 
by the cruel act of one of my own countrymen, come here 
to take advantage of the British law, to persecute a woman 
who had already lost all, and is without protection in a for- 
eign land. And now these glad summer days are only to the 
free. They are lost to me. Rays of the evening sun fall 
aslant this prison roof, which absorbs the treasured sunlight 
and makes the direful shade to envelop criminals. The 
prison roof revels in the flight of birds; in the changing col- 
ors of soft evening clouds; in the beauty of the Great Yukon 
waters, a brown, forceful torrent, cut by the swift, clear 
blue current of the Klondyke; in all the mountain barriers 
of this world famed river, and in all the stream of humanity 
passing by. All live to this prison roof, which is but a pall 
over me. I have had my own houses and lands, and have 
judged critically when contractors prepared for my abode, 
polished hard-wood, mosaic or brass. I have traveled on 
Pullman cars, on magnificiently appointed steamers, and have 



95 

enjoyed the luxury of hotels, from the "Ponce de Leon" to a 
^^ g^ Klondyke road house, and now I have a 

prison cell. I am number 8. I am hungry. 
Ah, the kind corporal in charge gives me bread and cheese 
and a cup of cold coffee, left from a lunch spread for some 
soldiers on duty in the guard room. 

The atmosphere of this place oppresses me. What is 
this strange influence? Is it that a criminal sat at the table 
opposite my cell door where I have ventured to write? At 
noon time he ate his beans and bread and wiped his greasy 
fingers; at eve he gulped down, with his allowance, a bitter 
regret. To-morrow another will succeed him. The place is 
chill and cold. I will go to my narrow cell, where there is 
a bunk of some boards and blankets. Think, oh! ye free of 
civilized lands, of the warmth of blankets that have wrapped, 
not one, but many criminals. How they crawl! They 
writhe! They sting! until sleep is impossible and dreams 
are torture. 

Debt a crime ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Dawson, where to be charged 
with debt may become a crime. Dawson 
with its incomparable summer climate, its crisp, ideal North- 
ern winter, its wild waters of the Klondyke, its swift, swirl- 
ing Yukon, its green, flower-bedecked mountains, and its 
stores of yellow gold. 

I am here by the accusation of a man who came to me 
crying like a child, begging me to save him from the perse- 
cutions of his partner, and from the threats of his creditors. 
He has sown my good dollars to the winds, in London and 
Paris. Ignorant, but assuming, he cannot earn money, and 
when, by good fortune, or by the favor of men, he gains it 
and is able to pay his debts, he travels to far lands and his 
creditors must not hope. He is a devout christian and 
boasts his hospitality and charity. He has a good wifg, and 



96 

both pledged me an undying gratitude. It was my act of 
good will to him that has eclipsed all life to me except the 
life of crime, the atmosphere of which permeates this place, 
and contaminates its belonging. 

The fling The Yukon is truly a land of promise, but that 
of fate. promise unfulfilled leaves it a monument of 

despair, and a tomb of hope, permeated with the aspirations 
of terrible greed and selfishness. My own loss of forty 
thousand dollars has been accompanied by a year of hard- 
ships. I have walked hundreds of miles over awful trails. I 
have slept on the ground, on rocks, on stumps, on the slant 
mountain-side, when a lack of level space forbade reclining 
in a horizontal position. Once I slept on poles laid across a 
miniature mountain torrent, tumbling down through a crevice 
between two steep banks. Once on the top of the Great 
Dome, where I sank down exhausted after a long walk over 
bogs, through mud and up the mountain-side. Even in my 
cabin I slept, in my robe and blankets, on a bunk made of 
boards, without spring or mattress. One night in February 
1 spent on the Yukon far from even a cabin, near the awful, 
rushing, steaming open water. 

But now to sleep in a prison cell! Sand- 
A prison cell, ^[q^^q^ [^ among a lot of criminals. May 
God never reveal to another soul the sense of awful calamity 
that settles over me as I sit alone and helpless in this British 
debtors' prison, knowing that my chance of release depends 
upon my ability to disprove the perjured statements of the 
men who sent me here. 

My attorney explains this imprisonment as an attempt, on 
the part of those who are persecuting me, to extort bonds 
from some one who may, from kindness, desire to get me 
released. The bonds will also further secure my note. I 
have paid nearly nine thousand dollars and have never had 



97 

one dollar from the claim, except the small amount from the 
man to whom I sold. The claim has not produced, to the 
interest I held, but little over one-half the amount I invested. 
They can foreclose the mortgage and take the property; they 
can, at small expense, by equitable settlement, take the 
property, yet they exact, at this cruel extremity, a bond. 
But I have no friend to give a bond to the amount of twelve 
thousand dollars, which is demanded as my ransom. If I can 
succeed in convincing the Judge that I was not going away, 
I am yet a prisoner in Dawson. Every movement to be no- 
ticed, and upon the slightest suspicion as to departure, an 
arrest. That suspicion not disproved insures a permanent 
imprisonment. Equitably I owe no one. I have no means 
with which to pay. This is the penalty of a faulty business 
method, and of an over-confidence in the word of another. 
The gloom of the prison deepens. 

A nightmare Horror of horrors ! what is that ? Adown 
of reality. the corridor a miserable wretch is con- 

stantly repeating a bellowing moan, now raised to a shriek. 
In the guard-room are sounds of loud talking, shuffling of 
feet, the click of metal, and now a rattling of chains and 
the iron bars are replaced; some drunken men have been 
placed in a cage just beyond me. 

Their voices are loud. Occasionally one of them falls to 
the floor with a dull sound. They are cursing and railing 
against the authority that placed them there. 

One voice, clearer than the rest, is saying in good orator-, 
ical style, " I want you to understand that I am an Amer- 
ican. Do you hear? And I am no Cheechargo. I was in this 
country before Capt. Harper. I was here when Constantine 
was the head guy. Harper is a good fellow, but he has too 

much power. I don't like this place. I want to get 

out. If I can't pay my fine, I'll saw wood. I aint lazy but 
I don't like to saw wood for nothing." 



98 ? 

(Guard), " Keep still, go to sleep." (First voice), I aint 

sleepy. You're a good guy but you can't answer a 

square question. Gee! I wish I could lose my job. I never 
done no harm. I aint killed nobody — at least I don't think I 
have — still, there might be a whole row of them down at the 
morgue." "Keep still!" **1 aint disturbing you. You can- 
vas coat fellers are pretty good guys, but Gee! I hate the 
soldiers. It looks like coercion, and I hate coercion. 
Mounted police are necessary, but policemen and soldiers 
are two ve-ry dif -ferent articles. Soldiers are cheap. Gee! 
the squeaking of that door! It sounds like fellers getting out. 
I aint seen one liberated since I came in here. They took 
my tooth brush and my lead pencil away from me. I sup- 
pose I'll have to trust to the honesty of the British Govern- 
ment to get them back." 

(Third voice), " What do you expect when you come to 
such a place as this?" 

(First voice), "Did I * come' here? They threw me in. 
They knew better than / did where I belonged. I would sign 

anything to get out — say anything. D the Eagle or 

the Stars and Stripes. The English, Irish or Welsh are a 

sight better than the American native born. I hnoio 

whereof I speak, but I've got it in the neck. I ought to get 

it. Many a good man has been thrown into this 

coop that never saw a prison before; and look at me! What 
laid so vilely on my stomach is now bespread upon my 

coat. Its a dirty bird that befouls its own nest. Say, 

Guard, give me some water, I want to take a bath. Gee! I 
wish I had never seen the French thing that got me here, 
and I've been at the head of labor organizations. Geei 
those soldiers. I don't like coercion, behind it is force, and 
when you show force you restrain liberty. If I don't get 
out to-day I'll be if I don't stay in until I do get 



out. I'm no slave. I'll saw wood before ni bow down to 
anybody." 

(Second voice), '' Ob, sit down and keep still." 
(First voice), " Yes, you're the kind of man that will lay 
down when there is trouble. It is such fellers as you that 
break a strike. / would stand, and be a martyr. Here, 
Provost Corporal, I'd like to have a hearing. I'd like to 
know what I've done. Charge it against me. This reminds 
me of a time when I went to look for a job as longshoreman. 
They said, *Do you belong to the Union?' I answered 'No,' 
* Then you can't have a job,' they told me. I went to join 
the Union and they said, ' Have you got a job? ' I said ' No,' 
and they said, * Then you can't join the Union.' But still 
you've got to maintain the dig-mty'of the law." 
(Third voice), " Give me a drink of water." 

(First voice), " D a man that will holler for water in 

a place like this. You ought to have mud. Here, Captain, 
Corporal, General or Ma-jor-General, whatever you are — 
this man wants one of your canvas coats for an alcoholic 
stimulant." 

(Second voice), " Sit down and keep still." 

(First voice), " There isn't a man in this place that can 

put me down. I worked last night on Gold Hill and I didn't 

come to town to twist the lion's tail, I came to get my 

mail, but I don't bow down to anybody. Gee ! I don't like a 

slave. D a man that will submit to order. They can 

throw me in but I wont lay down, t aint no patriot, I'm just 
as good in Canada as anywhere. Oh you fellers keep still. 

We're a lot of law breakers or we wouldn't be 

here. I don't like this. I'm used to living where my ris-ion is 
not obstructed by bars. I'm not one of those patriotic fel- 
lers to whoop for the flag. To h with America, or any 

other country. It looks to me that some of these fellers 



100 

with a star have to do something to keep up their dig-nity, 
so when they find a feller a little off they just throw him in 
here. 1 wonder what I was doing anyway. I must have 
been oh-struct-mg the sidewalk. I wonder what I would 
have done if they had not molested me. Oh, I've had too 
much Dawson bad whiskey." 

(Fourth voice), "Say, Guard! I want to see Mister Col- 
onel Steele! I want to see him nowl I want Colonel Mc- 
Cook! Send the American Consul here! I want Consul Mc- 
CooJc ! ! I am an American in trouble." 

(First voice), " Mush back into your corner. You can 
have the Consul, but you bet your life when you see Colonel 
Steele you will be sober. You can't have a hearing till you 
keep quiet. You've got to hu-wiWate yourself." 

(Fifth voice), " I want a glass of water." 

(First voice), " Water is to wash dishes with. I believe 
in free speech. / asked for water and they gave me a look 
of scorn." 

(Sixth voice, new arrival in handcuffs), "Say, Soldier! 
Say, Sergeant! I'm an American citizen and I'm a soldier, I 

want you to understand, every inch of me. I 

want the American Consul brought here at once." (Falls 

heavily), " I belong to the C family of Washington, and 

I^m a brave man — lying-right-here. I'm just naturally 
drunk." 

(First voice), " I'm. artificially drunk." (Fourth voice), 
" Aint it too bad that I can't see Colonel Steele." (First 
voice), " Yes, too bad for him." (Sixth voice), " I've never 
been in jail before and I don't like it. They'll never get me 
here again." (Third voice), " We none of us like it." (Sixth 
voice), "Say, Guard! here's ten dollars — get me out of this." 

(Seventh voice, just in), *' Hooray, for the Stars and 
Stripes, Begorra! Be's ony of yez masons or be yes Odd Fel- 



101 

lows? Phat's the matter? Oi'm beastly drunk — thot's all." 
(Sixth voice), "Fm a good soldier, I want you to under- 
stand." (First voice), " Well, Canada's spoiling for a fight 
with Uncle Sam over the boundary." 

(Seventh voice), "Be thot so? Then, be Jasus, Canada 
will have to be gettin out her license. Hooray! Oi'm an 
American!" He falls upon the floor, when follows a tirade 
of vile epithets, too vile for the vilest criminal to hear, and 
profanity self-exceeding, until the prison seemed the nu- 
cleus of a glacial hell, and I a lost spirit in torment. I retired 
to my bunk and indited a prayer to Colonel Steele asking, 
that, if womanhood must suffer loss of freedom unjustly, to 
spare me the awful desecration of this contact with crim- 
inals, and the vile stench from a vilest humanity in its vilest 
mood. 

And this is a Yukon debtors' prison. 

And this the place, surroundings and 
society in which a woman accused of debt in Dawson is sub- 
merged. Here are vicious men, thieves, murderers, swind- 
lers, forgers and macques. Intermixed with them are men 
serving out a sentence of six or nine months hard labor, for 
trifling offences. 

A N. W. M. P., Corporal in rank, stayed out all night and 
became intoxicated. He was stripped of his rank, ejected 
from the force, and given six months in prison. Another 
N. W. M. P. was serving one year for desertion which oc- 
curred eight years previous. One man was in for attempt- 
ing to commit suicide, another for attempting to elope with 
a young girl. A N. W. M. P. may get from seven to twenty- 
eight days confinement in the barracks, in service without 
pay, for failing to report every hour when on duty, or for 
over staying a pass. Sometimes a fine of a month's pay is 
added. This, with the withdrawal of the privileges of own- 



102 

ing property by officers and employees of the Government, 
may eventually deplete the police force, and should disabuse 
the minds of any who may foolishly imagine that the laws 
in the Y. T. are administered in favor of Canadians. The 
Northwest Mounted Police are men of ability, culture and 
experience. They are fearless and absolutely faithful in the 
discharge of duty. They are the best class of men in the 
Yukon Territory, and deserve favor, if any. 

Men were serving sentences of six months, with hard 
labor, for petty offences such as the theft of a bottle of 
catsup, a can of oysters, or a fowl. 

Oh ye dark ages, breathe again and wit- 
Reminiscences, j^^gg English justice in the throes of 
labor over the theft of a bottle of catsup ! Think of English 
dignity as an X-ray focussed on a miserable can of oysters. 
Is English justice ahungered, or well nigh starved, that it 
must be fed on such poverty of crime? or is it that crime 
in the Yukon country is so aggressive that it must be so 
enormously eaten? Have the British sent their mighty 
Justice out to this land widowed? — unsupported? Have 
they endowed their noble and trained military with a ham- 
mer and looking glass accompaniment, in according to it 
judicial power? 

Dressed in brief A military man is trained to duty. To 
authority. be "exact and thorough is his life. Give 

him the ponderous machinery of the law to run, and, though 
he may not understand thoroughly the degree of crime com- 
mitted, nor its fitting punishment, and he may not consider 
exhaustively the exact object of the law in securing the 
welfare and rights of all concerned, he will enforce some- 
thing. It is in his line, as a military man, to take aim, to 
fire and to bring down his victim. It matters not with him 
whether justice is tempered with mercy or stuffed with Aunt 
Regina's Pancake flour. 



103 

These military judges over humanity in the Yukon have 
no prejudice against classes, nor against nations. They have 
power. They feel a loyalty to the source of their power that 
makes them over-ready to act. 

The prodigal The wonderful resource of the English is 
English. shown in the very existence of the N. W. 

M. P. In them the English command a large number of 
men, who are, under every possible test, gentlemen, not 
open to bribes and corruption but faithful and efficient in 
the performance of duty; they are able to endure long trips 
over the ice in Winter, and over awful trails in Summer, 
with long hours of service, and under rules that are severely 
exacting. They are under contract for a term of years, at 
a ridiculously small salary ; their contracts, as a rule, were 
made outside, after which they were ordered to the Y. T., 
where the expense of living is much greater, the hardships 
increased and privileges diminished. No increase in salary 
was made when the removal was ordered, while desertion is 
punishable by imprisonment. Even after they w^ere deprived 
of the right to stake or own claims the men remained faith- 
ful to duty, and are serving out their time. 
Some subjects The M. P. are often victims of the peculiar 
rule. conditions made by the over power of Eng- 

lish law. It would ordinarily seem fitting that a subject 
should be entitled to his liberty until some one is willing to 
make oath that he has acted unlawfully, but here it is not 
so. The renegade American, or the foreigner (and of tener 
those than the British subjects), having a malicious intent 
toward another, may go before a magistrate and "lay an 
information." He tells some suspicious circumstances, but 
makes no statement under oath, except that he is informed 
thus and so. He is usually gifted with the art of lying in 
all its variations, and with all the industry of the original 



104 

Klondyker, strengthened by the experience of his stay in 
the country. The magistrate has one side of the story, and 
being zealous to maintain law and order, commissions an M. 
P. to arrest the man, believing that he is paying tribute to 
justice, but really he is acting as a servant to the usually 
malicious complainant, who at once goes about saying, "I 
had so and so arrested." The M. P. marches with his victim 
perhaps thirty or forty miles, over horrible trails to Dawson, 
to find that in many instances no case is made against the 
accused. The malicious complainant then goes back saying, 
" I let him go, I didn't push the case. I didn't want to put 
him in prison," and so poses as the benefactor of the accused 
man. The injured man, now indignant and outraged, at- 
tempts to punish the one who has disgraced him by unjust 
arrest and imprisonment, but finds that his accuser incurred 
no liability according to the law, in so doing. The accusor 
shrewdly sees that in court he holds an advantage in being 
the aggressor. Strange as it may seem, the burden is upon 
the accused of proving himself innocent, instead of upon the 
complainant of proving his guilt. The accusor incurs neither 
cost nor liability in causing the arrest of another. Thus 
English justice is not required to catch a guilty man. It 
can arrest a man, recite a hearsay report and make him 
prove himself innocent. Once arrested, an escape is diffi- 
cult, for Yukon Justice is tempered in rigors from its neigh- 
bor, Siberia. 

If England had sent the military here armed with good 
muskets, and with common sense, and not as good little boys 
in red jackets, with a lexicon as a compendium of all knowl- 
edge, she would not have made conditions whereby the whole 
country is rapidly passing into the ownership and control of 
a set of lawyers and legal sharpers, who have but to await 
an opportunity to manipulate, with a master hand, the real 
law to their own interests. 



105 

The prodigal The English, as exemplified in the Yukon, 
English. No. 2. .^j^g prodigal. The extreme of prodigality 
as to individuals is the so-called Cockney Englishman. His 
sense of his own dignity is upon him as a disease. It is a 
condition of importance and of largeness. It is not known 
that he considers his ideas small, but as they are, he either 
desires that they be larger, or he sees them of more import- 
ance than would an ordinary man. He gives to his smallest 
ideas the orotund of grandeur and sublimity, and the de- 
liberate, forceful measure of an oration appealing to the 
deepest interests of mankind. His finest rhetoric is none 
too good for commonplaces. He will bid a malamute dog 
to move on from his "pawthway " with as much dignity as a 
Napoleon would apostrophize the Egyptian pyramids. Ac- 
cent, inflection and emphasis are poured with molasses on 
his pancake. He rarely uses simile or metaphor, as they 
savor too much of a recognition of other greatness. He 
never uses French words or phrases, as he believes rather in 
expanding the English to satisfy all needs. He uses no 
slang, as that also implies a poverty in the quality of 
genuine English. As there are no worlds for him to 
conquer, no battles for him to fight, his dinner table be- 
comes his Waterloo, his belongings his army, and the shop- 
keepers supply the re-inforcements to make him a Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and an exemplification of a wasted dignity. 
Few Yukon Englishmen are entirely free from a tinge 
of this over dignity. 

Quick change The lawyers of the Y. T. are the exempli- 
advocates. fiers of an elastic legal etiquette. An at- 

torney defends a client one day and prosecutes him the next- 
His fees are enormous. He takes his client into court to-day 
on an assurance that the law clearly gives him his case- 
The Judge decides, " This is not the law but this is what / 



106 

think is right," and the case is lost. Again he goes into 
court with equity on his side, but the Judge may decide 
against him on some remote point of law. In despair, the 
forsaken client goes into court depending upon showing the 
facts of his case, and the Judge may ignore him as a man 
with no attorney, and so not worthy of success. The effort 
of an attorney, though it may be unheeded, serves as a 
resistant force against which the authority of the Judge 
may act. 

An avalanche Any Yukon Judge is one of the most pecu- 
01 greed. liarly situated persons in creation. He is 

like a human being buried out of sight in the debris of civil- 
ization. Some one asks him what era it is. He sends us a 
smothered cry, "Oh, my God! it is the time when mortals 
have voluntarily sought a glacial hell, to brew the liquid 
with which perjury is written, and to combine in a magnetic 
force, friendly to the growth of a horror unspeakable, to 
feed that force upon a vilest greed, to fan its flame with a 
monstrous inhumanity, to lay upon its altar all that man can 
voluntarily sacrifice of honor, to compel a wanton waste and 
desecration of all that true womanhood holds sacred. The 
Judge is the ruler, but he can never tell which is the black- 
est perjury, and Truth is a stranger in her own household. 
When the masses press beyond his portals, in a life of greed 
with no disguise, as they pray to Justice, what blame if he, 
in a wild delirium, rises to the occasion in a spontaneous, 
benevolent decision, thus: "Oh, ye diciples of Greed that 
ask of Justice, take the fate that here is coined for your 
emergency. You ask for bread — you deserve rocks — but I 
will give you sawdust." 

Liberty There, in the Hall of Justice, the fates of men 

in sable. are decided. The guilty accuse the guilty. 
The guilty accuse the innocent. The innocent sometimes 



107 

venture to accuse the guilty. The guilty accuser can sum- 
mon the aid of other guilty ones to whom he can in future 
reciprocate the service. The innocent are denied aid by 
competent witnesses, who fear to incur the enmity of the 
guilty opponents. The self-interest of attorneys may ob- 
trude. So, in the name of Justice, the battle of greed is 
waged from day to day. 

Alien In prison all days are days of waiting. I 

freedom. was standing in the corrider near my cell 

door one morning, forgetful that it was America's day of 
freedom, when I heard the sound of a band trying to play 
" Marching through Georgia." A sense of my own situation, 
brought about by the dishonor of my countrymen, and the 
vileness of the prison, overpowered me for a moment in 
choking sobs and most bitter tears. A kind-hearted guard 
was sitting on a box beneath a grated window. As I came 
near he offered to allow me to stand upon the box where I 
could see what was passing without. It was the celebra- 
tion, on British soil, of America's day of Freedom. The 
crowd was entering the courtyard, Capt. Arizona Bill, on a 
bay horse, in the lead. He is a poet, scout and successor to 
Wild Bill, he is also proprietor of "The Tepee," a tent 
saloon- He was gorgeous in cream white leather breeches, 
with leather fringe down the legs, a ruffled blouse, yellow 
tie, and a cow-boy hat surmounting his brown-gray hair, 
that lay in a kinky mass upon his shoulders. The motly 
crowd that followed was made up of something of respecta- 
bility, something of mediocrity, and something of the scum 
of all creation. Alas, that many from America, forgetting 
to be American, were men who love license and mis-name it 
liberty. 

No kin Within the prison the howling, bellowing 

of ours. victim of vice raised his voice higher, in 



108 

an unconscious dishonor of his country. The cage was over- 
full of men who were not aware that they shamed America 
in proclaiming their loyalty to her colors. The crowd with- 
out was soon reinforced with bright costumed wom.en, all 
massed there, without shelter from the hot sun, in the open 
court. 

A young man, with able lungs, stepped upon the porch 
roof of Colonel Steele's office and rejoiced in his inability to 
speak well, or at length, upon such an inspiring occasion as 
when America is permitted to celebrate on British soil. It 
is a sincere pity that his words are noted citing us as one 
people and brothers. A pity for the British in that one 
instance, and a pity for us always, if such conditions con- 
tinue to exist. 

I saw the The singing of ''The Star Spangled Ban- 

crowd, jjgj. " ]3y ^ f Q^ voices, followed, when Cap- 

tain Bill made a stage entrance from the open window upon 
the little roof, a la jack-in-the-box. With a boom he 
shouted, — "I tell you boys, I am glad to be here." No one 
doubted him, but the sentiment was not reciprocated by the 
crowd. He continued with an imitation wild west speech. 
The crowd hurrahed for the Stars and Stripes, for the Eng- 
lish flag, for America, for the Queen, for Colonel Steele, and 
then scattered to witness some races and contests. 

They were not The brown canvas coats of the mounted 
there. police, and the red coats of the soldiers, 

were conspicuous only by their absence. The English 
officials and social lights were busy elsewhere. 

I thought, on this, the National Holiday of my native land, 
the land of Freedom, I a helpless prisoner in a British 
debtors' prison! but what I saw and heard were not of my 
homeland. 




1. A group of Canadian Northwest Mounted Police. 

2. A group of Canadian Soldiers in winter dress. 




No. 1 The Quadrangle showing the barracks. The window above 
the middle dog is the one from which I viewed the Fourth of July cele- 
bration on British soil. There were numerous vacant places for the cele- 
bration and it is difBcult to say why the prison quadrangle was chosen 
unless for the benefit of American prisoners. L. B. V. 



Ill 

It sounded Q America! That thy foster children, with 

strange. ^j^eir tongues yet unbroken of foreign 

accent, should thus dishonor thee. Dishonor thee till I 
could feel it better fate to be in prison than of them, who, 
in their traitor lives, so draped thy blood-bought colors. And 
why not wholesome dicipline to make these lives of some 
account, and fit to be American, before thy priceless boon> 
— a citizenship?— else are we no nation. Only conglomer- 
ate of waifs and exiles of every land on earth. 
p. I Days passed and Yukon days do never end 

in summer. But prison days are hours, and 
hours, and hours, and hours of waiting. Loving yet the life 
that was, longing for the life that may be. Prison life is a 
dash in one's existance, a death except that breath and 
sense remain. To be imprisoned with a memory of crime, 
or with regrets — what punishment! To take away the 
experience of varied scenes and changes which obscure un- 
welcome memories, and by a solitary imprisonment, to leave 
those memories to hover o'er the bare and trembling soul, 
becomes its agony, even merging to insanity. Innocence 
takes no such punishment within the prison, suffering but a 
blank waiting, and a lack of varied experience and a means 
to an active life. 

He hears At last the summons comes. The judge 

my case. ^j^^ holds my fate upon his open hand, will 

hear my case. The perjurers are not called, Lyle sits by as 
the guest of honor. His accusation is admitted and he is 
enjoying all the privileges of an accuser, but I am question- 
ed long and critically, and all my proofs examined. The 
judge decided, "There is no evidence that this woman 
attempted to leave the country. I dismiss the case. " This 
came as a benediction to me — I lived again, and free! 



112 

From prison I returned to my cabin after the release 
to prison. from prison. My brain was on fire from 

the excitement and horror of the experience I had under- 
gone. It seemed that an age of awful torment had passed 
over me. I could not eat. Hour after hour I laid upon my 
bunk in a delirium of remembrances and of apprehension. 

During the long hours of the daylight night, and as the 
following day lengthened to evening, I lay in a bewilderment 
of pain, until a knock at my door was followed by the 
entrance of a friend, who came to tell me that the sheriff 
wished to enter. I told him to bring the sheriff. The 
sheriff had a warrant tor my arrest on a charge of theft- 

My accuser was a former partner of Lyle, and was, by 
agreement, held to pay half of certain partnership debts. 
He fraudulently claimed a halfinterest in the Dominion Mine 
and was attempting to enforce his claim to a balance of 
$140, advanced by a layman on the Dominion Claim, and 
which $140 I had used for Lyle's interest. I was Lyle's 
agent, so authorized by power of attorney. 

He knew This man D had visited the barracks, 

his chance. securing the necessary permit to talk 

with me in the guard-room. He had used his privilege 
to make a brutal demand upon me, a prisoner, in a matter 
which was Lyle's affair. I told him that as soon as I was at 
liberty I would try and have Lyle adjust his business mat- 
ters, and whatever rights he had would be recognized. 
He then He had proceeded with all haste to have 

«* informed." me arrested. The sheriff did not attempt 
to take me to the prison, but left my cabin, telling me to 
come over to the magistrate the next day, if I was able. 

I had a " hearing " before the magistrate. I showed by 
unquestioned authority that the layman paid me a check on 
the outside, which I collected by my own endorsement and 



113 

guarantee — that I receipted to the layman for his check- 
that the check was advanced in security for his lease upon 
the Dominion Claim, and that the claim or the other pro- 
ceeds of it, was held for the return of the $1,000 deposited 
by the layman. Lyle owned the claim, at least until the 
time when his miners' license expired, when the claim became 

the property of B , to whom I had sold a one-half 

interest. D had no claim to the balance of $140, 

either in law or in equity. I had neither secreted nor 
made misuse of the money as to Lyle's interest, as I had 
used a large amount of my own money to protect Lyle's 
business. Yet the magistrate failed to dismiss the case. I 
was held in bonds of $500 for trial, but was later discharged, 
as no case was made against me. 

He went D incurred no responsibility for his 

his way. act. He arrested me as a thief and set 

the machinery of the law in motion for hearing and trial, 
just to dignify himself as an accusor, and to be able to go 
down the street saying, " I had her arrested." 

Did Hooley This man D figured as accusor in the 

steal. case of a man whom I will call Hooley, a 

reputable citizen of Fairhaven, Wash., who had a lease on 
a Dominion claim, which belonged to Lyle. Hooley found 
a $50 nugget, which he was legally entitled to retain as part 
of his 50% of the gross output of the mine, according to 

his lease. D -, who claimed an interest in the property, 

demanded the nugget of Hooley, and upon Hooley's refusal 
to accede to him, he had Hooley arrested for stealing the 
nugget. One of the Mounted police marched Hooley forty 
miles, through mud and slush and over awful trails, to 
Dawson. The miners along the way stared at Hooley, seeing 
him under arrest. They wondered what crime had been 
committed. Hooley was well known in Dawson, and his 



114 

friends heard on the street that he had been brought down 

from Dominion under arrest and was in prison. D went 

about the streets telling that Hooley stole a $50 nugget, and 
he had him arrested for it. 

A cell for Two or three men made the trip from 

Hooley. Dominion at an expense of from $10 to 

$25 each, as witnesses. Hooley was locked in a cell and 

D proceeded to negotiate with Hooley's friends. He 

was a great man that day. He had commanded an officer to 
make a long trip. He had Hooley, an innocent man, locked 
in a cell. He had a magistrate ready to hold Hooley in 

prison and to await his, D 's pleasure to listen to his 

accusation. 

After much parlying he issued his ultimatum. If Hooley 
would give him the nugget he would let him out of prison. 
I was called into the conference as Lyle's representative. I 
advised Hooley to demand a hearing and to demand redress 

of the authorities against D . His lawyer decided, as is 

usual in such cases, that the accusor had incurred no liabil- 
ity. In Lyle's interest I refused to consent to the demand 

of D and he was compelled to withdraw his charge 

against Hooley. 

The nugget When Hooley went back to his work D 

Hooley's. had been busy circulating a report that he 

had decided to be lenient with Hooley on account of his 
family. He did not want to injure him. This was told with 
the air of an innocent man who had been injured. But 
there was no redress for Hooley, and there never will be. 

D will always tell his story. "Hooley stole a $50 

nugget. I had him arrested but would not push the case." 
There are some who will say, " Ah that fellow Hooley — let 
me see — he was arrested for stealing a big nugget on 
Dominion." D is ignorant, and unjust, and cruel, yet 



115 

Yukon British law made him a favorite, and a hero, and 
^ave him power to safely work terrible injury to an innocent 
man. 

The lawyers It was now midsummer. I was released 
won. from prison. Lyle had allowed his 
miner's license to lapse on June 12th, and, by the present 
law, the mortgage and his other half interest of the Domin- 
ion claim, lapsed to B , the other owner. I had been 

arrested by Lyle charged with leaving the country on 

account of the $14,000 mortgage which B legally 

owned. B had been compelled to pay $550 retainer 

fee to his lawyer in the case. A former layman estimated 
that the claim contained at least $50,000 in gold, and 
offered $10,000 for one-half interest in the claim, after the 
clean-up of $32,000. Soy had paid Lyle $1200 (it is 
believed for my note and mortgage and his interest in the 
claim), but no papers were placed on record. The bill of 
sale executed by Lyle was to a Dawson banker, for Soy arid 
his two la\N7ers. I had lost nearly $9,000 on the claim. 

... I went to an attorney to see what relief I 

lie knew 

could obtain as to my note given to Lyle, 

and so treacherously turned oyer to Soy and his lawyers. I 
was told, " Don't come to my office. Don't go on the street. 
Don't talk to anyone. Don't write — some one is always 
watching you and listening, ready to make out a new charge, 
or to do some new harm." 

This advice, though possibly wise and needful, I did not 
heed. I went upon the street frequently, and talked when 
I felt so inclined. I ivas watched, continually. 



116 



THE BEAR TOTEM OF THE BARRISTERS. 




Bears. 



The legal 
fraternity 
of Dawson all claim- 
ed the bear totem. 
Grillem keeps the 
door of his den wide 
open. When a com- 
plainant enters and 
tells that some re- 
fractory brownie 
miners have been 
interfering with his 
backyard, Grillem 
says, "Don't allow 
it, give me entire 
authority to settle 
the matter as I think 
best — sign this." 
The next step is to 
arrest the brownies 
and remove them to 
the Yukon prison, 
where they must 
either undergo pun- 
ishment or give 
bonds. They are 
usually compelled to 
pay. Unjust claims may be quickly collected in this way 
and Grillem exacts the last penny before he will release the 
chance of placing his victims in prison. 



117 

California Mill is an alien bear. The two bears in the 
bears. front office are supes and are harmless. They 

are Canadian bears, and their business is to own the sign on 
the door, and to affix their names to Mill's legal documents 
which are to go on record. They meet strangers who come 
to complain, and direct them to Mill's den for Mill to eat. 
Mill is very sympathetic. When he has determined to eat 
his victim, he says, 'Tm so sorry — I just hate to eat you — 
but I must do it — you know I have to do what my clients 
direct." 

The microbe Kyle is a venerable, legal bear. He was in 
possessed him. the chair the night when the English debt- 
ors' prison microbe was active, and is the godfather of the 
capias law. 

Wise but in Green is young and is the best of the lot. 

the minority. He knows the bear propensities of his as- 
sociates, and by a remarkable resource, backs his legal abil- 
ity with a string of malamutes. Plate is a bear oracle. 
When a complainant enters his den, he cuts short his story 
with this remark, '' Two hundred and fifty dollars retainer, 
if you please. Now go home — don't come to see me again, 
I'll fix this all right." Plate is a competent lawyer. He 
knows more about law than about his client's business. These 
lawyers are experts in manipulating the English laws so as 
to turn the affairs of clients to their own profit. The prop- 
erty owner who is lucky enough to escape simply by turning 
his property over to them, is to be congratulated. They 
oftener prefer to take the property and hold the victim by 
threats of prison, in the hope of securing bonds or fees from 
his friends. 

Only one When Grillem failed to secure bonds in my case. 
Soy. and the judge released me, he abandoned Lyle 

to the tender mercies of a miner named Soy. Soy is the 



118 

double of a man who claimed the distinction of being the 
only American citizen who has ever abandoned the flag of his 
country to become legally a British subject. This act oc- 
curred some years ago in British Columbia. The first thing 
the British did with him was to sentence him to two years 
in the penetentiary for committing an assault upon a young 
girl. He ventured back to the States to buy a gamblers' 
outfit to take to Dawson in '98. The atmosphere of America 
did not seem to agree with him, for at Skagway he ventured 
a second time to the parlors of one of Soapy Smith's fair 
ones, in an eifort to secure a rebate on account of an over- 
charge in a previous transaction. The fair one beat the 
aged sinner, and staff in hand, he attempted to escape down 
the street. She continued to belabor him until his husky 
son came to the rescue. Soy is very entertaining in con- 
versation, and delights in arguing as to his favorite religious 
doctrines. I learned from Soy that the Yukon mosquitos 
are generated independently from the Yukon moss, and not 
from mosquito eggs or germs. 

Soy assumes to hobnob with bankers, and high class 
Canadian barristers. It required just six hours for Soy, with 
the aid of the aforesaid Canadian barristers, to secure from 
Lyle the Dominion claim, and my note, secured by mortgage, 
for fourteen thousand dollars, at the small cost of twelve 
hundred and fifty dollars. Soy furnished the twelve hundred 
and fifty dollars, and acquired a half interest in Lyle's pos- 
sessions. The lawyers furnished the advice and obtained the 
other half interest. It is not known who furnished Lyle the 
incentive to depart secretly that same night for Cape Nome, 
leaving his other property and unsettled business matters. 

As a result of this peculiar business transaction in re- 
gard to a Dominion claim, I lost nearly nine thousand dollars. 
Lyle received nearly ten thousand dollars, which was as 



119 

much as the half interest had been worth on the market. 
Lyle lost the other half interest, which, by Soy's report, 
produced several thousand dollars during a few weeks in 
Summer, and which was estimated would produce another 
$30,000 in Winter. 

Greed in It was not many days after Lyle's depar- 

churchly garb, ture when I received a letter from Grillem, 
stating that Mr. Murcraft had a claim against me which he 
had placed in his hands for adjustment, and demanded that 
1 bring to his office, forthwith, a certain note of two thous- 
and dollars given by Murcraft in Seattle, as collateral se- 
curity for the payment of which I held mortgage notes to 
the amount of four thousand dollars, and certain steamboat 
stock valued at five hundred dollars. I had made the loan 
to Murcraft for a short time, but upon his failure to pay he 
had offered to go with my outfit to Dawson, via St. Michaels, 
in a clerical capacity, for his fare, which I advanced him. I 
had a written agreement signed by him, that he would, under 
no circumstances, make a charge for wages, but would at 
once engage in some business by which he could secure 
money to repay the loan. Consequently Grillem's demand 
astonished me. 

I went to the lawyer's office to learn what claim Murcraft 
had against me. Grillem referred to a paper written in pen- 
cil, a part of which only I was permitted to see, but from 
which I gained the information that Murcraft proposed to 
charge me several hundred dollars a month for his time in 
making the trip, and afterwards, when he was employed upon 
his own business, to the amount of thirty-eight hundred 
dollars. So that my claim against him was to be extin- 
guished, and I was to be his debtor to the amount of eighteen 
hundred dollars. Debt in the Yukon territory is a means of 
imprisonment. To defend myself in litigation was impos- 



120 

sible, as I had no means with which to hire an attorney. 
Murcraft also insinuated very forcibly that, in any further 
prosecutions or persecutions which might occur against me, 
it would be to my interest to render it agreeable to him not 
to aid the prosecution, (by perjured testimony, I assumed,- 
as I now comprehended that Murcraft was shrewd and dar- 
ing and would scruple at nothing). I also comprehended 
that Murcraft had no intention of paying his note to me. I 
had been notified by my banker outside that the collateral 
notes were signed by unknown, or undiscoverable, or non- 
existent persons. As a result, I signed an agreement by 
which I was to return the notes and release all claim against 
Murcraft, also giving him five shares of steamboat stock 
worth five hundred dollars originally. 

Young A few days after this occurance, I was pass- 

but able. ing down the main street of Dawson when I 

was accosted Jby an Italian boy who had landed on the bank 
of the Yukon in front of my cabin, in the fall of '98, suffer- 

. ^- .^ ing from lack of shelter and food. I had 

Authority n j i, ^ i i, • • 

. . , allowed him to sleep m my cache, givmg 

him a stove and fuel and food. All he could 
do for me in return was to wash dishes and bring wood and 
water. By express stipulation he was to receive no pay 
aside from board and fuel. I gave him some valuable cloth- 
ing and offered him employment at the mines when I was 
employing men, but he had refused such employment. He 
made no claim for wages when my outfit was divided. Upon 
the occasion of the meeting referred to, he said, " Mrs. V., 
I see that others have succeeded in getting money out of 
you, I don't see why I shouldn't do the same thing. I'd like 
to have you pay me some money." 

I answered, ** I have no money. I owe you nothing and 
you have taken a great many things that belonged to me 
which should be returned." 



121 

He answered, '' Oh, you can get money in some way, and 
I shall sue you and make you pay." 

I tried to reason with him, but he went to lawyer Mill, 
who at once brought suit against me, claiming two hundred 
dollars a month wages, besides his board, during the time he 
had slept in my cache, making a total amount of six hun- 
dred and eighty dollars. 

Notwithstanding that he had no proof of an agreement 
on my part to pay, that many good men were glad to work 
for. their board without wages, and that an action under the 
Master and Servants Act cannot be commenced legally after 
a period of sixty days from the time such labor ceases, and 
his suit was brought four months after, his claim was allowed 
and a judgment against me was rendered. This boy had 
been a perjured witness for Lyle, had committed various 
perjuries in recording claims which by his own confession he 
had not staked, yet he became a sleuth and an informer for 
Soy and for those who were holding a capias awaiting a time 
when [ might be taken in the act of leaving the Yukon ter- 
ritory, when I could be imprisoned if bonds were not fur- 
nished for me. In this emergency some friends transferred 
to the boy a steam launch which had cost me outside twelve 
hundred dollars, and which had been left on the lower Yukon 
by Murcraft and an associate, and which I had already sold 
to these friends. Another friend paid the boy fifty dollars 
in money and he went down the river towards Nome, to be 
a not insignificant figure in its scarlet life. 
The race Before leaving Seattle I had agreed with 

of greed. a man named Siller to advance him his 

expenses to Dawson, via St. Michaels, and he was to work 
for me as an engineer in Dawson. Siller abandoned the trip 
at St. Michaels. He went to a lower river town and engaged 
in business on his own account, but later came to Dawson 



122 

over the ice. I had lost all. He made no reference to his 
business relations with me but went about upon his own 
business. He finally entered into a contract with an outgo- 
ing Eldorado miner by which this miner was to advance 
Siller his expenses during a trip out. They left for the 
outside in March. Upon his arrival in Seattle, Siller pro- 
ceeded at once to attach a balance which I had left in the 
bank owing to outstanding checks which had not been pre- 
sented. Siller claimed two hundred and fifty dollars wages 
due, and six hundred and fifty dollars due from me for his 
expenses from Dawson to Seattle. An acquaintance directed 
an attorney to protect my interests in the case, which, after 
various complicated and expensive legal proceedings, re- 

Cannot command "^^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^'^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^'^ ''^^''^' 

American authority. ^^'^ ^^^^^^* ^^ ^ j^^^ ^^ "^^ ^^^ 
countrymen, which saved a portion of 

the last two hundred and fifty dollars of my fortune, was 

the first relief from the oppression of greed after a long 

two years' endurance. 

Thejury recognized During the days and weeks of waiting 

Siller's calibre. that followed these exciting experiences, 

I appealed to the U. S. Consul and to Gov. Ogilvie in an effort 

The Consul to get a passport out of the country. The 

didn t care. Consul ignored my request. The Governor 

listened kindly and said he would see Judge Dugas. My 

The Governor cared former lawyer censured me, telling 

but could not help it. me that by such acts I was placing 

in the hands of the officials evidence that I desired to leave 

the country, and they might appear as witnesses against me 

in some new proceeding. I do not know how serious an 

occasion existed for the censure, but no harm came of it. 

I began to feel that I was enslaved to a monster 

authority and a helpless prisoner in Dawson. 



123 

The As the late summer lengthened to fall my wait- 

escape, jj^g became oppressing. My food supplies were 
nearly gone, and I had no outfit for winter. I had no means 
of earning money. In this mood I became desperate and 
determined to escape. I would not compromise any of my 
friends, so on the afternoon of September 26th I placed a 
few necessary articles of wearing apparel in a canvas sack 
and asked a neighbor to carry it to the steamer Astorian 
and await my arrival on the lower deck. I walked slowly 
down the main street and mingled in the crowd upon the 
wharf. 

They did not There were soldiers and police on every hand, 
see me. A prominent man was leaving and all eyes 

were directed to the upper deck. A moment before the 
boat started I stepped upon the lower deck and retired to a 
dark place, where some bundles and boxes were stored. A 
young man came near. I recognized him as one of the three 
who had refused to prosecute me previously. I said to him : 
"I am trying to escape. Will you see the Purser and get a 
berth for me." He readily assented. I intended to retire 
to my berth and remain there during the entire trip, but, to 
my dismay, I learned there was neither berth nor extension 
to be had. 

The young man said he knew the Chief Engineer and 
would consult him. The Engineer had read of the persecu- 
tion I had endured, and consented to do all in his power to 
enable me to escape. 

The chief was I was directed to a little, dark room between 
an American, the engines and the wheel. The firemen 
loaned me two blankets and a pillow, I hid myself in the 
lower bunk and was soon on my way up the Yukon. 

He drank. ■'• ^^^ ^^^® ^^^ ^^^ present, but, alas, a new 
danger was to appear. A drunken watchman 



124 

discovered my hiding place, and, crazed by liquor, his con- 
duct soon became indecent and unbearable, even dangerous. 
The Engineer did not wish to proceed in any way to attract 
the attention of other officers of the boat, and thus disclose 
my presence there, and for a time I was in a desperate 
situation. The drunken man disappeared temporarily, and 
the young man before referred to bade me go above. It 
was midnight, and the steamer was tied up to a bank wait- 
ing for dawn, when we could proceed with our journey. I 
made my way around great piles of wood, forward to the 
stairway, and was shown to a vacant bunk in an extension 
fitted for about sixty men. 

I had a life preserver for a pillow, but no blankets, and 
it was cold. I could not sleep on account of my anxiety as 
to the outcome of my perilous trip. 

It was the last trip of the Astorian, and few boats would 
attempt the trip either way, as ice would soon be floating in 
the rivers and lakes. 

Thev slept. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^ looked over to the adjoining 
bunk, but to discover the brown canvas coat 
and brass buttons of an M. P. On the next bunk, in the op- 
posite direction, I discovered a soldier. I did not wait to 
consider expedients, but arose at once and found my way 
back into the dark room below. I retired to the narrow 
bunk and there I lay during the long hours of the day — the 
mighty engines so close labored in a deafening noise until 
the vibration became fearful. It seemed that I would be 
shaken to death, as I could not change my position readily. 
A stowaway. '^^^ fireman brought me food twice a day from 
the galley, but I was too ill to eat. Some one 
usually remembered to warn me when officers of the boat, 
or passengers, were in the engine room, or likely to come 
near my hiding place. 



125 

The One night, as we were tied to the bank, I was 

scarlet life, alarmed by the sound of a woman's voice 
shrieking and cursing. I learned that she had been a com- 
panion of a prominent man aboard the boat in a debauch of 
five days. Returning to her room at 2 a. m. she found that 
her room-mate had locked the door. She was kicking the 
door in an effort to break it in. The male passengers had 
left their bunks, most of them clad only in underclothes. 
They were running races, and were urging the woman on, 
incidentally. In my hiding place I moralized that there 
might be more freedom above, but not, necessarily, more of 
dignity. 

A mop as As dawn began to illumine the eastern sky I 
a scepter, heard a great downpour of water upon the deck 
above. I learned that it was the act of an ex-Klondyke mil- 
lionaire, who was mopping the deck to pay his way outside. 
The corpse A heated discussion in an adjoining quarter, 
in a cache. I learned, was that caused by the wrath of an 
outraged miner at the scandal created by a local paper, be- 
cause he had cached the body of a friend in a vacant cabin 
during the summer, and was bringing it out in a sealed 
casket. 

Melody in Another night episode was a fine baritone voice 
the hold. from another room, where a deck-hand slept, in 
some good concert songs. He was working his way out. 
Plethora of I also, during the trip, overheard an estimate 
greed. by the down-stairs society, as to the ratio of 

fares to the company, to those in the Purser's pocket, on 
one given trip. It was decided as 120 to 80. 

I spent eight days in the dark room amid the terrific 
roar of the machinery of the Astorian. 

At White Horse Rapids 1 made the portage of five miles 
via the tram road to the canyon during the night. I secured 



126 

a berth on a steamer which was to leave for Bennett at 
dawn. I remained in my berth thirty-six hours and upon my 
arrival at Bennett I wrapped a scarf about my face and 
took the narrow gauge road over the pass. In two hours I 
had the pleasure of beholding the British flag in the shadow 
of the American colors at the boundary and I was in America 
and free. During a most delightful trip of 1,000 miles via 
the inland route by S. S. to Seattle I received the congratu- 
lations of friends and strangers alike. A British official 
who was a passenger even expressed a pleasure that my 
persecutions were over. 

THE DAWSON PRISON. 

The The prison or barracks at Dawson is situated 

barracks, about midway between the Moosehide Moun- 
tain and Klondyke City, and is in about the center of the 
town on the river front. It is a low, log building with a 
dirt roof, about 100 feet in length on the street, with an L 
of nearly the same length extending eastward from the 
north end of the main building. Other buildings stand about 
a quadrangle, as shown in the accompanying design made 
from a pencil sketch which I drew when I was there. 
Tomb for The cells are five feet wide by eight feet 
the living. long; they are supplied with bunks eighteen 
inches wide, and with one or two coarse grey blankets, and 
with a tin can for slops. At 7 a. m. there is a sound of 
clanking of arms as a detachment of Mounted police march 
down the corridor before the cell doors and take their places 
near the exit "A." An iron lever is swung backward in the 
guard-room, which unbars the cell doors in one corridor. 
The prisoners put their cells in order and go to the sink 
" b " and wash their faces, after which they take their places 
at the tables, c, d, e, f, g, h. The guard-room door is un- 




Chief Engineer Chas. H. Jennings of Portland, Oregon, who allowed 
me to occupy the dark room, as illustrated, as a stowaway during my 
trip of eight days from Dawson to White Horse Rapids. He was obliged 
to leave without his belongings and make a hasty trip over the pass to 
the American side upon hearing that an officer was inquiring for him— 
he feared arrest on account of the assistance he had given me. The 
young man with my sack, containing a few necessary articles, is Harry 
balton. L. B. V. 








-"^ 



■'"^. 






mim 



I 



m 



The Dawson Debtors Prison and Barracks. 



129 

barred and four prisoners enter, carrying large tin cans 
that hold fifteen gallons each. The prisoners at the table 
arc served oatmeal mush with bread, and weak coffee in 
tomato cans. Laborers are served a little fried bacon extra. 
Breakfast over, the prisoners return to their cells and are 
locked in, excepting the laborers, who are taken into the 
guard-room, a few at a time. Murderers receive their pun- 
ishment in seclusion. "The man who was partner to the one 
who stole a fowl stands while he is searched by the Corporal. 
They wear a He then has a chain with a heavy 

chain and weight, weight attached to his leg, and goes 
out with the man who had no employment — the vagrant — 
who also has a chain and weight secured to his leg. Both 
are followed by the employer who hired men and could not 
pay, and is walking with the weight and chain attached to 
his leg. They take their places in the streets, or on the 
wood-pile, with other criminals and desperate characters, 
to work under guard of soldiers with guns. They must 
labor in continuous strenuous effort. 

A provost corporal discharges There is no matron and no 
the office of prison matron. separate place for women 
in the Dawson debtor's prison. I was given a cell among 
men, most of whom were criminals. A few necessary 
articles of apparel that were left for me during my confine- 
ment in the Dawson debtor's prison, were examined by the 
guard. The Corporal came one day to take my penknife 
from me, but I promised to use it only when my pencil 
needed sharpening, and he did not take it. Letters by post 
left for me were not delivered until I was released. To see 
a prisoner visitors are required to have a written order 
signed by the Superintendent, and the interview must take 
place in the presence of a guard. I was not permitted to 
speak with my attorney except in the presence of a guard. 



130 

They make I was given the same food as other prisoners 
them walk. — at noon beans and bacon and bread was 
served, and at night bread and rice and beans. At 9 a. m. 
prisoners who are awaiting trial, and those who are serving 
a sentence of imprisonment without hard labor, are com- 
pelled to walk in the corridor, "i-j," a few at a time — the 
macque, the murderer, the would-be suicide, the young man 
who tried to elope with a young girl, with the M. P. deserter, 
were given this privilege. At noon the working prisoners 
come clanking into the guard-room. The guards go through 
certain noisy maneuvers with their arms. The chains of the 
prisoners rattle on the floor, and they stand for the Corpo- 
ral in charge to pass his hands over them, searching for 
weapons or unlawful property. The lever is then swung 
back and a detachment of M. P. marched down the corridor, 
after which the prisoners are sent to the tables for dinner. 
The same programme is followed at 6 p. m., when supper is 
eaten. 

Silence At 9 p. m. all cell doors are locked and the 
reigns. Corporal in charge, with a guard, visit each cell, 
with a lantern, making a thorough examination of the walls, 
floors and contents, when all is closed for the night. A 
guard is always stationed at "k," and another in the cor- 
ridor, " 1." These guards are relieved every two hours. 

The prison service is all by mounted police. The 
prisoners who labor are guarded, in some cases by soldiers. 
For A company of soldiers is quartered at the bar- 

defense, racks. Several times during the day a bugle 
call results in a scurrying of all soldiers in the guard-room; 
they seize their arms and make a dash out of doors and are 
at once in line, with their weapons in position. It is an 
exhibition of their skill in defense, in case an assault should 
be made by wild miners upon what remains of their cotton- 



131 



wood stockade, or in case the unemployed should be dis- 
covered in great numbers, or in the event of the peril of an 
unprotected can of bivalves. 

Besides the preparations for defense, two soldiers march 
before the prison night and day, and in all kinds of weather. 
In summer they wear red jackets, with black pants having 
broad yellow stripes down the legs, and high boots, and on 
their heads they wear little caps the shape of bread trays. 
In winter they wear fur caps and overcoats. I never saw 
one with a parka on. The P. 0. is guarded by a soldier at 
night, also other places. There is a police station at Upper 
Discovery on Dominion Creek, and a detachment of soldiers 
near Lower Discovery; also a police station on Hunker 
Creek. 

Nothing There have been no riots in Dawson — no labor 

but greed. strikes and no election excitements. Vice is 
individualized in the mining camps of the Northland. 
YUKON PRISONS AND COURTS. 




Four Indian Murderers.- This picture was tal^cn when the Indian 
boys were confined at Tagish in charge of the officer at the right. L.B V. 



132 

Mum "^^^ affairs of the Yukon Government are under a 
military discipline that guards every opening 
whereby knowledge may be obtained, except as to the 
routine and rules which are apparent to all. Officials and 
employees of the Government are not communicative. 
Guards are as silent as the prisoners under them are com- 
pelled to be. Long and patient inquiry as to details proved 
fruitless, until I was confined for a time on a false charge 
in the English debtors' prison, and was able to acquire some 
knowledge of the hidden side of Dawson life after English 
power had spent its force. 

There is an awful grief and humiliation to a real criminal 
when Power is just in enforcing upon him punishment that 
he too well deserves. But when Power becomes the criminal, 
in an unjust attack, using its superior advantage in a 
cowardly menace to the innocent accused, how is that 
Power degraded, and the helpless sufferer martyred in his 
waiting behind the prison bars. Here is Dawson's Scarlet 
Judicial Life; Justice in crimson robes and flaunting a red 
rag to the public. 

Execute Two young Indian boys monopolized one cor- 
children. ridor. They were awaiting execution, in the 
near future, for the murder of a stampeder on a lake just 
below Tagish Post. Two stampeders, with their outfits in 
their boat, drew up to the shore and camped for the night, 
as thousands of others had done whenever and wherever 
fancy or necessity dictated. These Indian boys, Jim and 
Dawson Nantuck, with two others, stole upon them as they 
were about to leave the shore and shot both men. One man 
was killed and his body fell into the lake, the other, though 
severely wounded, managed to row away and gave the alarm 
to the M. P., who succeeded in capturing the four boys. 
One turned State's evidence and was freed; one died, leaving 



133 

but two to be executed. If their aim had been more true 
the outfits of the men would have been secreted, the boat 
confiscated and the names of the men would now be posted 
in Dawson, with those of hundreds of others missing, after 
inquiries had been made by anxious friends outside. These 
Nantucks were dull and stupid, they had no sense of responsi- 
bility, and no comprehension of the meaning of the terrible 
crime committed. They were employed at the kindergarten 
work of making designs on cards, in colored worsteds. 
They explained that some white men killed an Indian once, 
and they had a right to kill a white man. If the Govern- 
ment must punish them, they hold that it is unfair to take 
two lives for one. They were careless, native children, 
even in the shadow of the gallows. To the casual observer 
these Indian boys seemed more suitable subjects for humane 
care and guidance on the part of a civilized Government, 
than of execution. The free Indian boy, who was equally 
guilty with the others, may have learned the lesson that to 
enbark in criminal undertaking with others leaves an easy 
means of escape for one. 

They Some men were in prison for dishonest business 

punish, transactions. One young man, evidently unbal- 
anced mentally, was awaiting trial for the murder of his 
partner. He was afterwards adjudged insane by a jury, but 
the Yukon authorities refused to turn him over to his 
father. They preferred to incur the expense of caring for 
him in an insane asylum, possibly during long years, in order 
to retain the privilege of trying him and hanging him if he 
should ever regain his reason. 

Petty One young man was serving six months, with 

larceny. hard labor, for being partner to the man who 
stole a fowl. One man was serving six months, with hard 
labor, for stealing a bottle of catsup, another served six 



134 

months, with hard labor, for the theft of a can of oysters. 
It is said this last occurred on the upper river, on a scow. 
The man's life was in danger from floating ice in the river. 
He was compelled to remove the goods from the scow to the 
river bank," in order to save the property of the absent 
owner, and he came on to Dawson with other men on a raft. 
The can of oysters was taken from a case that was broken 
apart in order to remove it from the scow. 

The victim of vice, who was howling and bellowing 
twenty-two hours out of the twenty-four, received no medical 
attention or special care. 

Insane ^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ around the corner from him an insane 
patient was said to have practically starved to 
death. He was given food in his cell, but, not being 
rational, he was unable to sustain life by taking nourishment 
properly. He became reduced in strength, and death came 
to his relief. His lack of the services of a nurse was prob- 
ably due to the fact that the sentence of " hard labor " 
means continuous strenuous efforts, and nursing would be 
merely a light employment. 

Degrees A macque was serving two months, without hard 
of crime, labor. The personnel of the prison, as I saw it, 
furnished material for much subsequent reflection. The 
macque, although properly convicted of being a macque, was 
in for but two months, and without hard labor, while the 
Corporal was in for six months, with hard labor. Yukon 
justice esteems a macque as requiring but one-third of the 
punishment given to a Corporal for some trifling offense, or 
to a laboring man guilty of petty larceny. 
Pirates A dozen well-dressed men were locked two in a 
bold. cell. They were the captain and crew of a high- 
class river steamer. They were charged with piracy. Some 
trouble had arisen by which a former captain had been dis- 



135 

charged by the company. Complications with patrons of 
the boat arose, and it was rumored that these same river 
men were arrested and charged with being pirates bold and a 
sacrifice of a dozen men was planned to save the dollars of 
the company. The prison is easy of access in Dawson. 
Cheap I was informed that when wood was needed in 
labor. winter for fifty stoves, men having no employ- 
ment were picked up by the police, tried and sentenced to 
six or nine months' imprisonment, with hard labor, and 
placed on the Dominion wood pile as cheap labor. Streets 
are cleaned and graded, and all the Government buildings 
are cared for by prisoners under guard. 

A former employee of one of the large commercial com- 
panies was in for two months, with hard labor, for taking 
forcibly from his partner two hundred dollars, which was all 
that remained from the sale of joint property sold by the 
partner for six hundred dollars, and which balance the 
partner refused to turn over to the rightful owner. 

A young man was in prison for attempting to commit 
suicide. He had followed his young wife in from the out- 
side, only to find her in a Dawson resort of vice. The hours 
of anguish and despair that nerved him to an attempt upon 
his life may be pictured, but the vice which the young wife 
found upon her arrival in Dawson, and which had been the 
cause of her downfall, went unheeded. The prison doors 
did not open to receive any who lured her on in her wayward 
course. No authority of law interposed while the young 
husband's life was being thus despoiled of its honor and of 
its happiness, making for him a degradation and torture be- 
yond endurance; but when life became unendurable the 
authority of the law interposed a late punishment, the only 
result of which was to cast the young man into prison 
among criminals, and thus add to his wretchedness. 



136 

Protect doqs. Malamute dogs are expert thieves. They 
will steal canned goods, opening the cans 
with their teeth. They will steal from a hot stove food that 
is boiling, by taking the bail of a pail or a kettle between 
their teeth, taking it away and watching it until it becomes 
cool. They will crawl under the edge of a tent, or through 
a tent door, and are sure to find their way into caches 
unless securely locked. A man caught a malamute dog 
stealing bacon from his cache. He shot the dog and re- 
covered the bacon, but was fined and sent to prison for kill- 
ing the dog. Another man was in for attempting to com- 
mit suicide, another for attempting to elope with a young 
girl. 

Sleuths. Another prodigal use of loyalty and of power is 
the commissioning of the M. P. as " sleuths," 
and of using them to discover petty offences and inform the 
ofiicials. A well-known proprietor of probably the most 
orderly resort on the Yukon was visited one Sunday by a 
detachment of police. He called them aside and gave them 
wine and whatever drinks they preferred. They were suc- 
ceeded by two M. P.'s in citizen's clothes who ordered drinks, 
paying therefore, whereupon they arrested the man, and he 
was subsequently fined one hundred dollars for the offence. 
They had induced him to do an unlawful act, and paid him 
for it, and then appeared as witnesses against him. Such 
an effort to secure evidence proves that no open or flagrant 
violation of the law occurred. Is it possible British authority 
is induced, in any degree, to such acts by the paltry amounts 
which the offenders pay as fines? Is Yukon royalty so 
poor? It is nevertheless a fact that the man who stole the 
catsup worked six long months for the Yukon Government, 
earning $1,440; deducting $540, for board, leaves $900 net 
profit. 




1. Dawson street scene. 

2. Steamer leaving Dawson for Nome overcrowded with passenger; 




1. View of rear of the cabin of Alex McDonald— a Klondyke kin^ 

2. A Dawson street orator. 

3 and 4. Soldiers with arms on guard at the barracks in Dawson. 

5. Policeman ordering Cheechargoes to move. 

6. E. Leroy Pelletier and wife. Miner. 



139 

Profitable The man who stole the can of oysters did the 
business. same amount of work, also the two who stole 
the fowl, making $3,600 net profit to the Yukon Govern- 
ment as the result of the theft of one fowl, value $5, one 
bottle of catsup, value $1, and one can of oysters, value $1, 
or a total of $7. Several vagrants served six and 
nine months each, so that, altogether, the Scarlet Life of 
"hard labor" in the Yukon prison is one of the most profit- 
able institutions of the realm. The Government may not be 
mercenary, but it creates an unpleasant anxiety on the part 
of the public, to know that these small offences are a source 
of such great profit to the Government. A man and wife 
on the trail near Bennett took a piece of an abandoned tent 
and were fined eighteen months imprisonment, with hard 
labor. From two different sources it was told, as coming 
from the ofliicials, that they excused the excessive fine by 
stating they needed a cook at one of the police stations en 
route. Whatever may have been the cause, the Govern- 
ment will profit $4,000 by the labor of the man and woman 
during the eighteen months' imprisonment, for the theft of 
a miserable rag picked up by the wayside. 
The wages of crime Fines are imposed for everything. A 
are appropriated. man is fined from $25 to $50 for 
drinking; $5 for committing a nuisance, $2,000 for a license 
to manufacture liquor, $100 for each offence in manufactur- 
ing it. Dawson will be built in one place at one period, in 
two months whole blocks may be removed by order of the 
Government, and the people fined for failure to obey 
promptly. Another decree moves the town, or a part of it, 
in another direction. 

The mine owner is fined and imprisoned for employing 
labor beyond his ability to pay. The laborer is arrested as a 
vagrant, and compelled to do hard labor, for not having 



140 

employment. American steamboats pay the duty levied by 
authority, then they are taxed from $1,500 to $2,500 ad- 
ditional, and are fined for using the boat without license. 
The debtors' Not the most insignificant feature, by any 
prison. means, of The Scarlet Life of Dawson is its 

debtors' prison. In the beginning this referred only to 
debts for labor performed, but, by later local enactments, it 
has been made a sweeping measure and applicable to all 
debts. Under a law called "The Master and Servants' Act," 
an employee may bring an action in a police court against 
his employer, with but a few dollars expense to himself, and 
without an attorney. He may cause his summons to be 
served immediately, compelling the appearance of his em- 
ployer in Court the following day, where judgment is 
rendered for the amount demanded, to be paid in from five 
to fifteen days. If not paid the employer is sentenced to 
imprisonment, with hard labor — seven hours for every hour 
the employee worked without pay. Owing to peculiar con- 
ditions this law has wrought hardships to innocent people, 
even to laborers themselves. 

The Yukon Territory has no agricultural 
oomerang. resources, and no easily accessible adjacent 
territory to which the laborer may resort in case of need. 
So that labor is utterly dependent upon the mining industry. 
Mining, at its best, is uncertain. No miner will undertake 
to open his ground without a reasonable hope of success, as 
the expenses, aside from labor, are great. The laborer is 
usually hired by an agreement to take his pay on bedrock, 
or out of the proceeds of the mine. He has the same ad- 
vantage as the miner, of knowing his prospects, and as the 
work progresses, he is fully aware of the condition of the 
mine. Work is necessarily done in this way, as each Sum- 
mer the miners who have cleaned up enough gold to enable 



141 

them to pay cash for labor the ensuing Winter, elect to go 
outside and leave other miners who have claims, but no 
money, to be the workers. There is never enough money in 
the country in Winter to pay the labor bills. 

The best paying mines, those producing from thirty 
thousand to one hundred thousand dollars in gold, require 
fully half the amount mined to pay labor and royalty, and 
sometimes more, as pay dirt in the Klondyke region is from 
25 to 100 feet below the surface of the ground, which is 
frozen to an unknown depth. Claims that yield less, and in 
which there may be trouble in locating the pay, require 
sometimes all the gold mined, and more, to pay for the labor 
required. The cost of labor, at one dollar per hour, amounts 
to three hundred dollars per month per man. Where several 
men are employed in a mine, to detract from the pay streak, 
to suffer from the inflow of water, or from gas in the mine, 
so as to require extra work and delay, will, in a short time, 
precipitate financial ruin upon the owner. The owner takes 
the greater risk and endangers even his right to liberty, 
while the laborer demands a sure one-half of the gold mined, 
if not all, retaining the sublime privilege of placing his em- 
ployer on the Government wood pile in case of misfortune. 
The favored The law is administered broadly in favor of 
of authority. the laborer. The courts have refused to 
recognize the admitted agreement of the laborers to receive 
their pay in the clean-up, and have rendered judgment sev- 
eral months before wages were due in a case where the em- 
ployer had abundant assets, thus causing a ruinous sacrifice 
of property to get money quickly. 

Men who, from charity, have been given their board when 
in need, have gone into court and collected high wages 
where no labor of value was performed. One man collected 
wages of another who directed him to a certain man as a 



142 

possible employer. He obtained employment but afterward 
failed to receive his wages; he then brought action against 
the man who directed him to the delinquent employer, and 
obtained judgment, which was paid. 

The laborer may go to a poor widow and incur a debt for 
board, when she needs the money for fuel, or for supplies, 
and asks relief of Yukon justice, she finds that the laborer 
may laugh at her and say he has nothing that is attachable. 
The small dealer, too weak and ill to work and just able to 
attend to his little store, is induced to let his goods go on 
credit to the laborer whom the Yukon law favors, and when 
unable to collect the poor invalid may starve or become a 
charge upon charity. He has no means whereby he can 
compel payment or punish the offender, unless he attempts 
to leave the country. Thus is this brawny, strong, healthy 
laborer permitted to become the possible bully and beat; to 
prey upon the helpless, and yet be the darling of Yukon 
justice. 

A relic of a The debtors' prison is a microbe that lingers 
bad past. long in the English anatomy, to develop 

spontaneously and blossom into new life upon the slightest 
occasion. 

Innocent people, who are not well known, and have no 
influential friends, and no way of establishing their identity 
as respectable persons, may be cast into prison upon a false 
charge of debt. The fact of arrest as a criminal may be 
the only thing that is widely known of such a person. He is 
reported as a criminal, but after proving his innocence he 
has no means of redress agaainst those who have wronged 
him. 

I have spent many hours in the criminal court, listening 
to cases in which persons accused of crime had been held in 
prison, or released upon bonds awaiting trials, when abso- 
lutely no case was made out against the majority of them. 



143 

He had In one instance a man had deposited a gold 

no case. sack, containing a few thousand dollars in 

gold dust, in the safe of a well-known gambling house. Sev- 
eral persons had access to the safe. The man took the sack 
away, used several ounces of dust from it and placed several 
ounces of other dust in the sack, the sack being in the pos- 
session of others, and handled by others, in the meantime. 
He claimed to have discovered that he had lost thirty ounces 
of gold from the sack. He had the cashier of the gambling 
house arrested. The cashier was tried at great expense. 
Expert testimony was introduced as to the possibility of a 
sack containing so much dust becoming enlarged from the 
pressure of the dust, which the accuser urged as an evi- 
dence that a theft had been committed. The cashier was 
finally discharged. 

His friend Another young man had been in prison 

"informed." nearly three months. A laborer, living in 
a tent on Eldorado, had left a sack containing six ounces of 
gold, value ninety dollars, under his pillow. He left the 
tent for a number of hours, upon two occasions, and, after 
eighteen hours, discovered his loss. The accused was an 
acquaintance living in another tent not far away. About 
two weeks after the loss of the gold another man "in- 
formed" the loser that he thought the accused took the 
gold, whereupon the loser had the accused man arrested and 
confined in prison. Upon the occasion of the trial, his Wor- 
ship, the Judge, sat for an hour listening to the testimony 
of the loser as to affairs of minor importance, and to the 
very conclusive defense of the accused as to where he got 
the sixty dollars found in his possession when he was ar- 
rested, and which was not claimed to be the gold of the 
loser, nor that it was in the gold sack of the loser, nor that 
the sack of gold even resembled that of the loser. 



144 

The accused brought witnesses to show where he had ac- 
quired his money to clear himself from the possibility of 
guilt, if it should be charged as a crime that he had sixty 
dollars in gold dust. Finally the Crown attorney arose, in 
his long black robe, and said, " Your Worship, / don't see 
any ivay of connecting this evidence with this prisoner,^^ 

Here was a situation. There was an accusation, and evi- 
dence, and a prisoner, with a Judge, a Crown prosecutor and 
an attorney, but there was " wo way of connecting the evi- 
dence with the prisoner " as against his right to liberty. The 
loser had not been asked to prove that he ever had a gold 
sack and six ounces of dust, or that he was liable to tell the 
truth upon any occasion. The accused had spent nearly 
three months in prison, which was a definite wrong. 

The gravity of the situation became oppressive to the 
hearers, until his Worship spoke in these words, " You are 
discharged, but don't do so any more." I have many times 
pondered as to the meaning of these words addressed to a 
prisoner under such circumstances. 

The prosecutor Earlier in the day, my attorney had asked 
spoke. the Crown prosecutor if he would call the 
case of D. vs. V., as the prosecution had failed to make a 
case, and the accused was a woman, and he would like to 
render it possible for her to leave the court-room. I was 
anxiously awaiting the result of my attorney's request but 
to hear these words, spoken so distinctly by his Honor that 
they could be heard by all present, " Oh, d the woman." 

A man whose debt is not legally due may become a crim- 
inal, under bonds, or imprisoned. Thus the Yukon debtors' 
prison grinds out injustice and inhumanity, and is oftener a 
servant for the vicious than a protector of the innocent. 
The law practically protects the guilty when he is the ac- 
cuser. This may not be from intention on the part of the 
Yukon British, but from a lack of perspicuity. 



i4r> 

The ordinary man A reasonable conclusion, after an ex- 
the imperial bully. perience and study of conditions un- 
der monarchical goverment, is that the dread and hatred 
Americans entertain of imperialism as a menace to personal 
liberty, is entirely without foundation. The ordinary man, 
by allowing the imperialist the garb of authority and the 
appearance of power, can make that power his servant and 
his tool, even in acts of inhumanity and of oppression to 
others. 

It requires neither wisdom nor art to possess the priv- 
ilege of doing great injustice to others. Officials are not 
open to bribes, so it is a much cheaper process than in the 
States, where the free use of money is said to be a condition 
to the owning of official power by outsiders. 

When will English power, in the Yukon country, ex- 
change its debtors' prisons for the real advancement of a 
superb civilization, as the maker and arbiter of justice, and 
not as the dupe and servant of designing men. 

The variable business conditions of mining camps are 
sufficient warning to creditors to protect their interests 
suitably, or to prepare them to expect loss. Circumstances 
which require the arrest of a fleeing debtor also expose an 
equal criminal carelessness and neglect on the part of the 
injured creditor. 

Too difficult The Yukon officials have not always suc- 
for them. ceeded in capturing real criminals. Some 

miners found the skeleton of a man in a burned cabin on 
Last Chance Gulch. The man was known to have had gold, 
and evidence of crime existed, but the authorities never 
found the murderer. Various robberies of caches and of 
individuals have occurred in the City of Dawson, but the 
police have not captured the robbers. Some daring swind- 
ling operations and legal robberies have been perpetrated in 



146 

Dawson and the guilty ones have escaped arrest, and have 
never been called upon to give an account for their mis- 
deeds. Men have disappeared from the trail and evidence 
of crime has been reported, but no arrests were made. 

If this were a recital of single isolated experience it 
might pass as a subject for a peculiar tale of the Northland. 
1 was the only woman so persecuted, but hundreds of men 
suffered similar experiences, and quite as flagrant injustice. 
To ask relief in 1 hope to ask redress of the Canadian Gov- 
my own case, ernment. If I were permitted to seek re- 
lief for all, I would ask that the man who would arrest or 
accuse another of crime, or would attach property or insti- 
tute litigation that might prove expensive, should be required 
to make oath that sufficient cause existed to warrant such 
prosecution, and should be held in bonds to substantiate his 
claim. The witnesses should be found and examined, and 
placed under bond to appear at the trial. This alone would 
correct the evil practices of the Northland. Next, the pun- 
ishment inflicted should bear a natural relation to the crime, 
and should be reasonable. 

For equal In the case of the arrest of a debtor, the 

rights. one who accuses should show, by an ex- 

haustive examination, and by creditable witnesses, that he 
has a just claim — also that due precaution was expressed in 
taking security and protecting his own interest, and that the 
departing debtor is guilty of fraud — the accusor should be 
held on bonds to prove his charge by suitable documents or 
by reliable witnesses. 

The reliability of witnesses should be questioned — an ex- 
States prison convict, and an admitted perjurer, and a known 
thief should not be permitted to swear away a respectable 
person's fortune and deprive him of liberty. 




1. Miner's Camp during the cleau-up. 

2. •' Girl wanted." 




Sttimpeder on the bank of the Klondyke resting with his pack 
on his back. 



149 

MINERS' MEETINGS. 



Authority. 



Authority is the quintessence of civilization 
since Eve was made from the rib of man to 
be his helpmate, and since Adam assumed that an item of 
existence cannot be greater than its source, and therefore 
is not entitled to an independent life as a lesser light. Also 
since the descendants of this pair have been tribes and 
peoples, and nations warring against each other for suprem- 
acy, but with no reliable decision as which was best fitted to 
rule; the strong, conquering host, or the possible wiser, but 
weaker vanquished victims. 

Those who made a long flight up the Yukon from prefer- 
ence, if from no more serious reason, left the authority of 
civilization behind, but the life of authority has sufficiently 
penetrating vital force to grow spontaneously. The isolated 
miners soon discovered that while it was not pleasant, in 
times past, to be under authority, to exercise authority was 
a very different proposition. Miners' meetings of the Yukon 
came into history as a result. Of these meetings it may be 
said that disorder, or violence, or wrong doing, would at 
once characterize the miners as outlaws and bandits, sub- 
jecting them to punishment, and extinguishing their author- 
ity. It became a matter of serious moment to maintain a 
good degree of justice in the doings of the meetings. The 
decrees of the meetings were easily enforced, as the meet- 
ing was composed of the entire camp, and they did not meet 
until they were ready to condemn and accuse. 
The judge Miners' meetings have been called to stimu- 

was slow. ulate a too tardy administration of justice; 

as in the case of a man arrested at Circle City, and confined 
unreasonably in jail, on suspicion of having robbed some one 



150 

at Fort Yukon. Judge Crane did not call him for trial. 
The miners demanded a hearing for him without avail. The 
miners finally, under the leadership of four prominent men, 
released the man from jail and set him at liberty. The reg- 
ular court resented this offense to its authority, and com- 
mitted two of the leaders to Sitka for trial, for their inter- 
ference. 

They make In Alaska a truce exists between real and 

the Hootch. bogus authority in the sale of whiskey, by 

means of bribery and a regular tax of a dollar per gallon. 
This is usually admitted. The manufacture of "Hootch," an 
intoxicating beverage, is also a hidden spring of the Scarlet 
Life. Some men of high social standing have made practical 
use of their knowledge of alchemy in this direction. The 
magical properties of Hootch are unique, and are sufficient 
to transform a poor miner into a millionaire for the time 
being, and also to make a millionaire miner a poor man. It 
is the "claim" of the knowing saloon-keeper, who prefers 
not to work, but to linger near a warm fire in winter while 
the miners work. He knows that at the clean-up the miners 
will salt his claim with genuine gold, and the precious metal 
which shone with promise between the riffles in the sluice- 
box, will lie darkly under cover in his capacious sack. 
Miners' meetings are sometimes dry when the favored con- 
testant is privileged to furnish to the judge and jury the 
liquid stimulant necessary to a decision in his favor. 
She would'nt An Alaska miners' meeting was called in 
tell. in the case of an industrious colored woman 

who had a business, or means of acquiring wealth, which 
was a mystery to all. A prominent society man was charged 
with indebtedness to the amount of thirteen hundred dollars, 
to this colored woman. An actor, not unknown to fame, 
was counsel for the complainant, and his brother took up the 



151 

cause of the defendant. A prominent Chicago physician was 
elected judge. The oath of office was regularly administered 
by a notary public, who was the Government agent. The 
first sparring was done to obtain an itemized bill, and a prov- 
ing of the charge. An effort was made to secure her ac- 
count books, giving the names of other customers and 
amounts due. The woman, with the loquacity of her race, 
was entrapped into making damaging admissions. It finally 
transpired that one hundred dollars of the amount was for 
food for the defendant's dog, which she had recently cap- 
tured and was holding for ransom in her cabin. The defen- 
dant had cruelly tempted the dog to a jump for life through 
the cabin window. This was one case where the accused 
was acquitted by a miners' meeting. The poor woman was 
unable to recover what may have been a just debt, from a 
lack of knowing how to make her claim in fitting terms. 
Truth was obscured and its force weakened in an atmosphere 
of ridicule. 

For everv ill "^^^ miners' meeting has been a panacea 
for all the ills of the miner, hence it hap- 
pens that the record of those meetings is as varied as is the 
highly wrought need and lurid experience of settlements so 
remote from civilization. 



THE TRIAL OF SIGH WARNEM, 

It was a warm August evening and the Moosehide 
mountain was all aglow with yellow sunset color, while the 
gray clouds that trailed above the midnight dome were 
blushing a beautiful rose-hued pink. The hurrying Yukon 
reflected a golden color that looked quite real; as if fine 
gold from its frozen bedrock had been released and floated 
on its surface. 



152 

And they Three ravens were sailing along above the 

were black. river, and the steam ferry was just arriv- 

ing from West Dawson with one passenger. 200 restless 
spirits had just sailed for Cape Nome as steerage passengers 
on a down river steamer, and Dawson was in a sort of para- 
lyzed condition, awaiting events. The hanging of two In- 
dians and a white man for murder, one murder and suicide 
combined, and one suicide, with the discovery of the charred 
remains of a murdered man in a partly burned cabin on Last 
Chance Gulch; several deaths from typhoid, the continuance 
of the long continued stampede for the outside, of its in- 
habitants, and a few drowned, was all the month had afforded 
to interest those who were waiting to be entertained. A 
crowd of miners had gathered around a faro game at the 
Casino to see the little Jewess Mariette play high stakes and 
lose $3,500. As Mariette retired, Taklaheena Bob, who was 
reading a brand new "P. L," called the attention of the 
crowd to a report on Alaska, by Sigh Warnem. "There it 
is," said Bob. "Another one of those writers has been in 

Thev should ^®^®' ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ passed that no 
not come. reporter, story writer, or book maker 

should be allowed to come further than 
Lake Bennett on the up-river route, or Rampart on the lower 
river route." Listen to what he says: — 

"All men ar liars, everybody knows, but for cheerful, in- 
nocent, stupendous, monumental, colossal liars of the first 
water, the people of Alaska take the cake. 

It seems to be a part of the country that you soon be- 
come an enormous, mastodontic liar. But the people are 
good, whole-souled, kind fellows, with hearts as big as their 
lies, who will put on a new bonnet and choker and come 
down to the boat and bid you good-by, even if you haven't 
known them more that a couple of days. The scenery, the 
country, it's impossible to tell about it. Even the liars have 



153 

to stop when trying to tell about it, for they can't think big 
enough. If I was going to be banished, I should like to be 
banished to Dawson. 

I wouldn't believe my own father if he told me a thing 
about Alaska, even if he had lived there for years; for I 
know he couldn't tell the truth about that country; nobody 
can. They told me about mosquitos, and that I would have 
to go coated in a thick immersion of pennyroyal to save my 
life; but I didn't see a single mosquito all the while I was 
gone, and I don't believe one ever saw the country. Such 
marvelous scenery that passed us on our way down and up 
the river defies the world to equal. The Dardanelles don't 
touch it; nothing on earth is in comparison. It surpasses 
anythingl ever dreamed of. The whole trip was a pano- 
rama of beauty, except the voyage down, when I had to 
sleep with an African. 

The most heroic men in Alaska are the women. They 
are so enthusiastic that they take your breath away, and 
make you like the country whether you want to or not. 
They don't care for the hardships. Nobody will ever say a 
word against the country. Even the hard-luckers have noth- 
ing to say for Alaska but good. 

While I was there, two cases, involving the ownership of 
claims, came up. They were both between Canadians and 
Yankees, and the Yankees won, because they were right. 
One was about a woman who had staked a claim, but couldn't 
get it recorded, and when she went back the next day found 
somebody else had recorded it. She proved this to the satis- 
faction of the judge and got her claim, which was worth 
$200,000, and the Canadian was told he could appeal to Ot- 
tawa if he wanted to." 

And Sigh "I propose that we go over to the Olympic, 

had gone. ^g there is no play on there this week, and 

send Old Handy, the Dawson Demosthenes, out with his 40- 
horse power voice to announce a miners' meeting to try 
Warnem for this offense. Nine o'clock sharp. Boys, what 
do you say?" 



154 

The classic "Aye, aye" was the answer that went up 

^^** from the crowd. Handy was soon out in 

true Athenian style. At every street corner he paused, and 
delivered a short oration thus— "Now boys, I've got some- 
thing better for you to-night than the dear little Klondyke 
Sand-paper, and something more delightful than wine. Ce- 
cilia's grand operatic concert, and the balloon ascension ain't 
in it with this and the Paris Exposition — Klondyke moving 
pictures don't compare. It's a miners' meeting at the Olym- 
pic theater, at nine o'clock sharp. Go and do your duty, 
every one of you — get all the girls to go —we'll try the son 
of a gun that has dared to come here and stay two days and 
out again, to write our history. I tell you, boys, we've been 
robbed — that fellow gathered up enough lies in two days 
to last him all winter, and he got himself inoculated so 
he can tell lies of his own; he has skipped out without pay- 
ing royalty, and, if the truth was known, I bet you ten dol. 
lars he never took out a miners' license, nor done a blamed 
thing that was legal while he was in here. 
It *«5 a fact ^^'^ robbed us — he owes us — get out a 

capias — the prison yawns for him — ^you go 
on boys to the meeting — I'll be there myself as soon as I 
make the Grand view — the Post-office block — Nigger Jim's 
Pavilion and the Monte Carlo. I won't stop to orate long 
on such a subject as this — everybody will go easy enough." 
Promptly at nine the meeting was called to order by 
Taklaheena Bob; a new curtain by Brown, the Klondyke art- 
ist, was let down. It was a garden scene. Adkin's yard, 
about two miles up the Klondyke river, on the right limit, 
about half a mile up the slant bank from the river, and about 
a mile and a half down from the top of the bank, which is 
broken in domes and divides. From its peculiar location, 
the garden is tipped up on edge, which, tho' inconvenient for 



166 

the purpose of agriculture, is handy for the artist. The 
curtain shows the residence of the gardener as two stor- 
ies high and built of boards, with a lot of gables, and a rus- 
tic porch built of little poles. The garden is mostly a turnip 
ranch. In this country turnips are 25c each, and the leaves 
grow large, and tender, and juicy. The bugs do not eat 
them, but whether on account of the high price, or in def- 
erence to the elite of the town, who use them for salad, is 
not known. The asters and marigolds look very beautiful, 
as they peep through the picket fence, and the people stand- 
ing about are of the upper ten. Mrs. Judge Dothis and 
members of the A. E. Co., the B. N. A. Co., the N. A. T. Co., 
the A. C. Co. and some other companies which may not be 
mentioned — they have presumed to appropriate claims on 
the face of bluffs about Dawson as a place for their adver- 
tisements, and the miners propose to show them that they 
are off from the pay-streak, by boycotting such firms. Daw- 
son was pretty well represented at the meeting between the 
curtain and the audience on the ground floor, and some girls 
in the boxes, (who had proved an attraction to some of the 
bank and company employees, thinking it was to be an occas- 
ion like the foregoing week, when they had, in those same 
boxes, with the same or similar girls, run up wine bills to 
the amount of $100 or more each.) 

They all Judge O'Flannigan was elected to the bench, 

were there. and the oath of office was admisistered. 
O'Flannigan was an American lawyer and had been repressed 
so effectually by the British rule, which forbids Americans 
to practice law in Dawson, that he was almost overcome with 
emotion to find himself elected judge of a miner's meeting. 
Several moments were required for him to collect his scattered 
thoughts and prepare for speaking. But, finally he arose 
in response to calls for "A speech, a speech," and said — 



156 

"Friends and Miners — The honor you have conferred upon me 
well nigh breaks my heart. I was judge in Chicago for 
years, and learned the laws of many lands, I came to the 
Yukon, but I find that to bask in the sunlight of so much 
British dignity and authority just withers and dries the mar- 
row in one's bones, The British will have no law except as 

told by British students, no medicine except 
.. * ' as prescribed by British pill-makers; they 

even demand that no school shall be estab_ 
lished unless a competent British teacher can be found. 
They have no confidence in law; unless it is strained through 
the brain of some barrister and polished by his logic — and 
drugs, through grown in other lands, must be fed to them 
by British hands, and knowledge must be nursed as British 
pap. Such conceit and over-dignity, so nourished, should 
grow and thrive, and all the fees and profits go to British 
sons. That is well, for when I go to court and see the little 
barristers so weakly tugging at their heavy cases, all at sea 
for what a wise experience would give, I say, 'Tis well to 
thus protect the barrister — he needs it — let the client fare 
as best he may — he beards the British lion in his den — he 
must be eaten. The British curb our wills and suffer with 
us in their greed of power and high authority, to make 
the terms as hard as possible for us to live. They give 
no titles to our mines, and only lease from year to year 
to menace us, and then the wiser English withhold, with 
others, all the capital that they else might invest here. 
They send the soldiers and police out over awful trails to 
collect a royalty of 1/10 of the gross output of the mines, 
which is more than the net profit to owners on the whole, 
and capital again withdraws. They reserve one-half of every 
creek that is staked, for the Crown, and labor declines to 
prospect and take so many chances of failing to record even 



157 

the one small claim that is prospected. They license saloons 
$1,000 and $2,000, and then refuse the importation of 
liquors, and pile up thousands of dollars in value, of the stock 
already ordered at the boundary line. 

And so the Yukon English play goes on — mistakes of 
prejudice and injustice of experience. 
She is so The Queen, good woman that she is, sends 

good. us a member of Parliament to see that we 

have no roads, that business is all gone wrong. This M. P. 
makes a public speech to say that the government is in 
sympathy with the people, and their grievances will be at- 
tended to; while he naively confesses that the people made a 
mistake in sending their complaints to Ottawa. 

They should have sent a set of resolutions commending 
the Yukon government for its brilliant policy, and for its 
dignity and power. They ought to have known better than 
to complain, or to even suggest improvements. They should 
have taken our taxes with our compliments. 
He wants The British will be brought to the point of 
to know. sympathy with us, but the miner will yet won- 
der what his royalty of from $500 to $5,000 is for. The M. 
P. thinks the people do not tell the truth about the amount 
mined, and he would remove half the royalty as an induce- 
ment to the miners to be honest. The M. P. does not know 
the Yukon royalty collectors, nor the police patrol up and 
down the creeks, nor the sleuths in plain clothes out on the 
trails. If there was any reason for such a statement, some 
one's claim would be confiscated. 

The Yankee One surprising utterance of the M. P. is a 
tricks. compliment to the shrewdness and acumen 

of American business men, and an admission that Canadian 
business men might profit by their example. I would never 
have dared to say such a thing publicly, but here is an open 



admission from a man of exalted position, of the cause that 
underlies all our trouble — a lack of shrewdness and acumen 
— otherwise, and said directly, a stupidity and a dull, blun- 
dering, slow, mistaken policy. Power without ability. Au- 
thority without tact and skill. 

Our case has been diagnosed and we know what ails us, 
but tho' an M. P. may admit the advisability of a Yukoner 
as a teacher of Yankee shrewdness — the Yukon Britisher 
may not see the need of it and may refuse to learn, and may 
be paralyzed, or fossilized, in his present condition, and as 
long as he retains power and authority we may suffer as of 
old. 

As to the case in hand, since Warnem is not 
o ar a y. present I will not place his interests in the 
hands of an amateur, but will appoint barrister Black, whom 
I see present, to take charge of his interests. Taklaheena 
Bob may open the prosecution." The Judge sat down amid 
an amused titter, which had arisen in the audience at the 
appointment of barrister Black. Black was a young advo- 
cate, whose knowledge of law and keen insight into the 
meaning of written documents, made him very competent to 
advise in complicated litigation, but, so great was his sense 
of his own dignity and ability, he would scarcely give a 
client time to state what his claim really might be. He 
would usually shut him off in the middle of his recital, take 
his $250 or $500 retainer fee, and dismiss him with the in- 
junction, — " Now go home and stay there — do not ask me 
questions — do not talk nor write to me, say nothing when 
you meet me, and I will fix this matter all right." Black 
aspired to the reputation of an oracle. He permitted his 
client's presence at the trial, but never inquired after wit- 
nesses that might be called. Black and the law, and as 
little of the client as possible, were all sufficient. Yukon 



159 

Judges sometimes ignore the law, but Black would never 
learn to fortify all sides of his case, and often lost his case 
as a result of his dependence upon his own oracular wisdom, 
and his neglect of weaker means of defense, so his appoint- 
ment to defend a client whom he had never seen, or possibly 
heard of, appeared to the crowd as a bit of sly humor on the 
part of the Judge. Bob and Black took two orchestra chairs 
just below the center of the stage, and Bob arose to speak, 
while Black tried to look bored, Bob said : 
It's best " Friends, — as you know, our motives in 

for them. making the regulation that reporters and 

story-book writers should not be p'ermitted to come farther 
into the country than Lake Bennett on the south and Ram- 
part on the north, was not devoid of philanthropy, as it is a 
useless expense for literary people, who, as a class, have 
no money to waste. Think of two women who recently 

made this trip with a great Dane dog, mak- 
was here ^^^ ^^^ entire distance from the mouth of 

the Yukon to its source, and all the way up 
stream. What the dog endured eating Yukon river steam- 
boat fare for weeks and weeks, no one will ever know. I 
doubt if he even learned the first octave of the malamute 
howl, or became versed in the art of opening tin cans with 
his teeth, or of handling a granite-ware pail full of steaming 
hot food, without being discovered by the owner and without 
getting burnt. That dog never wore dog moccasins, nor car- 
ried a pack saddle filled with 50 pounds of tin can stuff in 
summer, nor pulled a load of cordwood in winter. He does 
not know all of the slang and profanity in the English, In- 
dian and Creede languages, like the commonest, scrubbiest 
malamute in the pound, and, I venture to say, it is nothing 
less than cruelty to animals to bring such a dog on a trip up 
the Yukon and out over the pass. The women could get 



160 

some ideas of some things by landing at Dawson and stop- 
ping at a $10 a day hotel, but the life of Dawson is deeper, 
and more far-reaching, and more complex and terrible than 
to give up its secrets in such a way as that, and the dog-life 
of the Yukon is not phased one particle by a visit from a 
literary great Dane dog reporter. 

In just As to Warnem, there are two mitigating 

two days. circumstances — one is, that owing to his 

brief stay of but two days, his visit may have been accidental, 
and judging from his published statement, it is probable that 
he was lost. It is best for us to determine the nature and 
extent of his offence, then we can fix upon a penalty. That 
Warnem came here cannot be denied, and while here, during 
a part of two days, he did these things,— He walked up Bo- 
nanza to No. 76 and sat on one of the rustic seats, and drank 
of the mineral water that some say is lithia and some seltzer, 
— in fact he discovered the mineral properties of that springy 
for while we have all been guessing, he has demonstrated the 
effect of its waters. The remainder of his visit — his call on 
the Governor and a sitting at the Gold Commissioners' office 
to absorb the spirit of official life— does not signify. He 

drank of the free waters of the first and 
H d L ^^^y genuine Klondyke mineral spring; and 

though he did not seek such fame, all the 
world will know the consequences of the drinks he drank. 
That was probably the cause of his hasty departure; he was 
full and his mission was accomplished. Ponce de Leon dared 
malaria of the Coast of Florida in search of the fountain 
which would make possible to him a perpetual youth. 
Brown-Sequard proposed a toast to nations in his so-called 
Elixir of Life, but since the mistake of Eve in eating of the 
tree of knowledge, people have been wary of a search for 
wisdom at first hand, preferring hearsay, and to profit by 







's^M 


'H^^'^l 





1. Mineral spring at No. 76— Bonanza. 

2. View of Bonanza creek from the trail at No. 79. 



162 

the dearly bought experience of the few. But here among 
the waste bedrock of our mines have we neglected a wonder- 
ful spring, and judging from the experience of Warnem, it 
is a wellspring of knowledge, and we are chagrined at our 
own neglect. Think of the tram road, with no tram, running 
by this spring and collecting 50 cents a trip from a man 
mushing his sled, [and 25 cents extra for the sled, over 
the snow that fell freely from heaven to make a trail, and 
think of all the fellows that pass with their pockets lined 
with miners' licenses — licenses to cut house logs, to cut 
wood or to sell what grub they have to spare, and yet no 
license to drink of this valuable water — no royalty on the 
overflow, and this book-maker has had all this benefit free 
of expense, and without contributing a cent to the wealth 
of the realm. 

He paid This Yankee story writer will now sell at a 

no dues. ^ j^jg^j price to the Yankees what he so 
cheaply obtained. 

The situation is worse than I expected." 
Bill sat down dejectedly, and Black looked very tired. 
Peder, the Swede, next came forward and spoke excitedly 
as follows: "I tell you, boys, it hurts my indignity to have 
a Yankee reporter get the best of us in that way. I say it 
is out-diculous, and what does he do — he don't look for no 
yob with a pick and a shofile. I read that article. I know 
what he does. He just sit down by dose spring and make a 
geography of the country. He discovers himself just two 
miles up Bonanza from the mouth. He pats himself on the 
back and says, 'you're a good boy. Sigh'— take anodder 
drink of the water and go back to Dawson — you've done 
enough.' By Jemmeny Christmas! I give that fellow point- 
ers on the Gold Commissioners' office when he said that the 
Yankee got the claim away from the Britisher. Couldn't he 



163 

tell that the Yankee was a woman f I wonder if he called 
that sizing up our officials; and to think he did not know 
that old crowd down at the steamboat landing — he thought 
they were big-hearted citizens of Dawson down there to see 
him off. That old crowd was left back from last winter — 
then they kept moving to save mushing wood, but this sum- 
mer they just stay round the landin' to see the steamers 
come and go, and to wait n^xt time for something non- 
reasonable to happen. They're a cultus lot. 

Dose mineral water must be hot stuff, to find so many 
48-hour old friends in that crowd. I know that fellow 
Sigh was lost. He thought he saw Alaska, and after a few 
mountains along the coast from Skagway to the White Pass 
he went down miles and miles of British America and the Yu- 
kon Territory and never even dreamed it. He heard of mos. 
quitos in Alaska. Why didn't he go down to Alaska to dose 
Yukon flats and see about it? no one ever told anybody we 
have mosquitos in the Yukon Territory. If this is the intox- 
icashun effect of the water, I say it is dangerous stuff — a 
man would not know what he is talking about." 

Peder retired, and Prof. Linkus Gadder came forward, 
took a careless position before the audience, and began an 
address. 

He learned " Friends and Miners. This man Warnem 

the news. seems to evince peculiar ability in discov- 

ering liars, or, rather, in admitting all men liars. There is 
one good thing, he did not talk to any of us while he was 
here; so whether it was the spring water or the officials, or 
the contesting parties, or the crowd on the dock that con- 
vinced him we are such prize liars, is hard to tell. 

As to a law-suit over a claim, it would not be surprising 
if some one lied — the decision was a fact as to the crowd on 
the wharf; a sensible man would not expect much of friends 



164 

of 48 hours picked up in such a country as this. It is a 
mystery to me how a man can acquire such an understanding 
of the truth as to be able to distinguish lies reliably in so 
short a time; it must be due to the mineral water. He is 
only another one who failed to comprehend that this life of 
the Yukon has many pleasures and infinite variety, and that 
two people may each tell a true story of his or her exper- 
ience, and yet the stories may differ so widely as to appear 
to be false. Comparisons are difficult to conjure that will 
be apt in discussing the life of the Northland and its en- 
vironment, and if Warnem has given us a sample of his 
future sketches when he cites the Dardenelles, he surely 
promises something new and fresh in literature. He admits 
of our Yukon scenery that the Dardenelles don't touch it. 
Here is a mystery. What in all the panorama of the upper 
lakes and rivers, could have suggested the Dardenelles to 
Sigh Warnem, even as a contrast? He must have been think- 
ing of ' Sweet Marie ' and how Leander swam the Hellespont 
all for to kiss his beloved, and he got mixed with Yukon 
scenery. 

Mr. Warnem should know that we do not deign com- 
parisons. We are individual, unique, and no frivolous ap- 
pearance, but a severe test for his English, as well as for his 
discrimination and judgment. 

The arctic The mineral water gets in its work again 

belies. when this book-maker writes about the 

women that take his breath away, and make him like the 
country whether he will or not — just like a veritable sour- 
dough, for all the world, and to come here from civilization 
and not know that we have the most insinuating, tootsy- 
wootsy darling lot of women grafters in Dawson that can be 
found anywhere on earth, and that they just take possession 
of every man, especially if he has a well-filled poke. Sigh 



165 

was only one of many, for even the two days he was here. 
They have owned the U. S. Consul — the business men, the 
miners, the soldiers and police, and why not the innocent 
book- writer? And this is the record of two days. What 
may we expect during the winter? I am more than ever con- 
vinced of the justice of our act to prevent such trips to the 
Yukon. Give them Ogilvie's book on the Edmonton trail, 
and a set of Commercial Co.'s guide books with illustra- 
tions and a map, and then let them write us up. Let them call 
the Yukon Territory * Alaska,' and the people ' liars.' Let 
them read each other's books, and discover more lies and 
more liars. Let them talk about ' The Dardenelles ' and the 
Suez Canal, if they wish; we will remain undiscovered and 
virgin territory for literature when they have passed away, 
and the world knows what a lot of fair-weather tourists have 
written, and thinks it has learned of the life of the Great 
Yukon — the tragedy of nations — the high tide of human 
life." The Professor retired and Black arose and said: 
He did "Gentlemen, — I cannot deny that my client 

no harm. was here, but by your own admissions, he has 
written nothing about you nor about the Yukon Territory. 
His writing is of Alaska, a country that we have nothing to 
do with. As to the mineral spring — if he proves it a well- 
spring of knowledge, we may well concede to him the benefit 
he derived from the use of its waters. I move that the case 
be dismissed, and a judgment rendered accordingly." Black 
sat down and the Judge arose, and said: 
We are " As to Warnem and all other writers— we are 

too deep. the same and undiscovered. They can make 
up their books to suit themselves. Do as a recent writer did. 
Move the Indian River from its place 20 miles above Dawson 
and put it about 40 miles below Dawson. That is not much 
of a feat. Follow the example of another who wrote of a 



166 

terrible experience from thirst, of prospectors up one of the 
gulches, where sand and hot sun prevented the 'water-carts' 
from going — never mind the inconsistency — let the real peo- 
ple toil up the boggy real gulches, wet to their knees, and 
then write them as dying of thirst; let them climb the 
mountains, and follow the ridges, and get mired in bog, and 
drowned in springs up there while they cry, ' Water, water, 
or I die!' Another may write of the snow-eating habit of 
winter, from the same cause. The poor victim becomes fas- 
cinated with the habit. It is his manna in the desert — it 
gladdens his heart and intoxicates his senses — he wastes 
away and dies, and with his last breath calls for ' snow.' He 
has not deigned to drink the open water of the rivers or the 
ubiquitous, perpetual springs of the creeks that flow on and 
on forever, wasting water enough to form a glacier 30 feet 
thick in a season. The snow eater could always get water 
by melting snow in a tin can over a little camp fire. But let 
him die in an opium dream after snow eating. 

Think of the childlike innocence of the author who wrote 
a long account of digger Jim, the white singer of coon 
songs, so affectionately nicknamed by his friends, but by 
this wise author described as an aged negro cook discharged 
from a river steamer and left penniless in Dawson, but, 
through, staking a rich Eldorado claim, now a king rolling 
in wealth. The origin of Yukon shrewdness and guessing is 
as a defense against the Yukon inaccuracy of speech. 
It was his I wish to read you a clipping from a Dawson 
dream. paper, which consists of twenty-five metered 
lines, and signed by Sigh Warnem, 

On board the S. S. Astorian, Yukon river. 



167 

TO THE DAWSON SANDPAPER. 
In your sanctum sanctorum 

There are many gems of art. 
O'er which the bright electric glimmer gleams. 

And among them there's a picture 
That almost breaks my heart — 

A picture of a woman dressed in dreams. 
There's a hint of hope half hidden, 
There are dreams of fruits forbidden, 

There's the winsome wahabaya 
Where the tangled tresses fall; 
And I'll own there's nothing, Peter, 
Nothing sweeter or completer — 
But you'll have to 
turn that picture 
to the wall. 

I had fancied in this heart of mine 

All passion long deceased. 
I've been virtuous from the springtime to the fall, 

All this sultry, sunny summer I have lived just like a priest — 
But you'll have to 
turn that picture 
to the wall. 

There are hands that seem to draw me, 
And my pulses throb and thaw me. 
There's an unseen something tells me 

That I'm just about to fall. 
Nothing's dearer, and you know it, 
Than his virtue to a poet — 

So you want to 

turn that picture 
to the wall. 

In these lines, my friends, is much food for philosophical 
reflection. It has been charged that the very atmosphere 
of Dawson is a contagion that makes men what they were 
not before, even if it does not insure that they will be what 
they are. This man came here after ideas, and after lies 



168 

gathered on their native soil; but witness his experience as 
told by himself. I give this as an evidence of a peculiar 
life about the place that is possibly a contagion. He has 
completed his tour of two days, has passed the wharf crowd 
of 48-hour friends, and is on the up-river steamer. He is 
not troubled with blisters on his feet, nor with rheumatic 
pains, and does not long for home. He used to write 
* Sweet Marie,' but witness the change, and see what he 
writes after 48 hours in Dawson. And what does he see? 
A woman — not a nude picture, but dressed, and dressed in 
dreams. This must be a new kind of dream that is even 
more unique than Jo's dream which covered the pay streak, 
or blank ground, but we are left in doubt as to whether 
Sigh's dream covered or revealed. Popular literature has 
had its dresses that were "dreams," but this modern poet 
makes a sky-rocket ascent and sees a woman dressed in 
dreams — leaving us in doubt as to the rest of her costume. 
There is one saving expression — the "hints of hope half 
hidden." 

What can But the " winsome wahabaya " is another 
it be. mystery — what can it be? It surely is not a 

parka, for parkas are not winsome. It is not a bodice, nor 
a cloak, for while those may be * where the tangled tresses 
fall,' they are not winsome. We must ever remain in 
ignorance of what the " wahabaya " is, although we know 
where it is. But whether opaque or scanty as to dress, the 
picture is complete. It is in the Editor's sanctorum, and 
while Sigh's heart is almost broken he writes the lines 
hastily; not to beg and plead, but just to state the fact 
bluntly — "You'll 'have to' turn that picture to the wall." 
" Have to " are pretty big words to leave in Dawson, if only 
as a prophesy of the fatal power of a picture. But, then, 
the Editor is an old timer, and is acclimated to dream-clad 



169 

pictures, while Sign is a Cheechargo. Sigh then takes oc- 
casion to indulge in reminiscences. He *' was " a passion- 
less, no-good sort of a fellow, and boasts virtue. I do not 
know whether this is a sample Alaska lie which he is trying 
on us, or what he really does mean. 

What does he Passion aroused and sweeping over the dead 
mean? past like a Dakota prairie fire — his pulses 

"throb and thaw him." How can these wandering pen 
artists deny that there is something spontaneously warm 
about Dawson— our record is made, and henceforth we may 
not permit allusions to the "glacial hell," or to the " blue 
moon," or to the " chill Northland "—we are a warm, tropi- 
cal climate all the year round, and our warmth has hands to 
draw a fellow like Sigh, and an unseen spirit to send an 
electric message chasing up and down his spinal vertebrae. 
Lucky Sigh, that the Astorian sailed that day, and did not 
permit another twenty-four hours on shore, and another 
period of basking in the Dawson warmth that " thaws " and 
makes a fellow in danger of falling. How near did the 
world come to having a record of a fallen man. But Sigh 
did not fall —he went home. 

He did not We may not decide hastily of the cause as to 
fall. whether it was the atmosphere of Dawson or 

the spring water. He has given us the picture as a com- 
panion piece to the woman dressed in dreams, and both must 
be turned to the wall. 

You have all heard the arguments. I propose that we 
vote Sigh Warnem guilty of entering the territory, and that 
his sentence be to prove himself a consistent writer of all 
that he gathered while here." 

An overwhelming affirmative vote was carried, amid 
applause, followed by dancing until morning. 



170 



INDIANS OF THE NORTHLAND. 




They're fat The original Indian 
and short, inhabitants of the 
Yukon are low of statue and 
are rather disgusting looking. 
From their appearance they 
might be wild Japanese. The 
fierce northern winters have 
tamed their native wildness. 
The moss-grown mountains and 
boggy valleys do not tempt 
their short legs to roam as 
heirs of all creation, so they 
squat along the rivers in 
miserable tents, in houses made 
of hides, in snow houses, in sod houses, in caves or small 
log cabins, and await the annual tour of King Salmon, when 
they build their traps and put out long rows of the de- 
mortalized fishes like rags a drying, as sweet perfume to 
quell the natural or acquired odor of their habitations in 
winter, while furnishing a means of sustaining life. Some- 
times a resourceful one among them, in a moment of inspira- 
tion, conceives a viler odor and a more exquisite degree of 
filth, and proceeds to prepare a pit, into which are cast the 
basely-captured fish, there to rot with worms and awful 
stench until the cover is occasionally removed and the glad 
Indians dip therein, with eager fingers, to regale a healthy 
appetite. 

And lazy too. "^^^ Indian is a lax hunter, he kills a moose 

or caribou occasionally for food ; or a bear, 

wolf, fox, beaver or muskrat for fur. He builds a birch- 



171 

bark canoe, or kyak, and skims over the surface of the 
mighty, rushing river, unmindful of its swift current and 
dangerous rapids. 

Indians may fish in the waters of the Great Yukon, and 
they may eat fish, and smoke tobacco when they can get it, 
and live on and on in a tame, spiritless existence, but their 
squaws were born to ultimately eat white man's muck-a- 
muck, if not to a better fate. 

The trader White men, ten or fifteen years ago, imagined 
came. that Indians of the interior would enjoy the 

privilege of buying tea, tobacco, jewelry and gay clothing, 
but they would hardly have taken steps to gratify them in 
that respect if they had not anticipated the Indians' gen- 
erous bargains in furs. So they journeyed hither, these 
knowing white men, to profit by the ignorance and inexperi- 
ence of the aborigine. 

And sold them These fur traders had no music, no books 
guns. and no theatre. They had but one amuse- 

ment — to place a gun, with an exceedingly long barrel, up- 
right on the floor, and watch the poor Indian pile up skins 
beside it to the height of the muzzle. The gun then became 
the Indian's property; the skins belonged to the white man. 
Other amusing exchanges were effected, exercising the 
generosity of the Indian to the white man's profit. It was 
interesting to exchange a single bead for a skin, and a small 
quantity of tea for a number of skins. This was the poor 
Indian's first lesson in civilization, and to this day he is 
pondering deeply over whether or not he paid too dearly for 
it. Wrinkles have been added to his face, and his spirit has 
been quelled in this mental struggle, and he wears his green 
pants and yellow Mackinaw coat, with red bandana handker- 
chief, sadly. The steamboat whistle, unable to awaken the 
torpor of centuries, may sound a requiem over savage life, 
lost in a useless imitation of civilization. 



172 

SQUAW-MEN. 
About the scattered trading posts in early days were 
gathered men from the overflow of a too-full civilization, 
and search was made in the earth for gold. The gold was 
found and was the honest reward of honest toil. 
And took their It has never been discovered what cause led 
squaws. the miner to smirch this fair record. Pos- 

sibly the trader, not content with the Indians' generous con- 
tribution of furs, had essayed to take his squaw, and thus set 
the pace for the unsophisticated miner. However that may 
be, the miner was not content with the golden gift of nature, 
and ventured to prey upon humankind, and, having nought 
he cared to trade for furs, he took a squaw. She was often 
neither ornamental nor particularly useful, but the white 
man was inclined to make the best of the situation in a long 
and patient effort to teach her habits of cleanliness and of 
usefulness — at least up to his own ideas of neatness and of 
domestic arrangement, which are not necessarily fastidious. 
He would endure much for the proud distinction of being 
known as a squaw-man. He might have a wife and family 
outside — some of them did — but this was life! To dig in the 
earth and pan out little grains of yellow gold, then to come 
up out of the mine and seek the low door of his smoky, 
dingy log cabin, and within its shadow, by the one pane of 
glass that answered for a window, to espy the dusky face of 
his squaw companion — to study if the fire-light made the 
copper-tinted glow on her cheek, or if 'twere nature's car- 
mine blighted by a northern chill — to ponder if her glossy 
braids were carressed by the well-nigh toothless comb, to- 
day, or if 'twere yesterday, and did she bathe last week, or 
when it rained? and to regret the rainless Yukon days. 
Again, her muck-a-muck — and would she ever learn to cook? 
And then, somehow, by some way and means — the gods wot 



173 



not- came the little half-breed mite, amalgam of the miner's 
domestic prospects— and others yet of later date. 
And now they The church essayed to train the Indians for 
know. a higher life, and took the girls into its 

missions and taught them English and how to live on white 
man's fare, and, incidentally, to despise the tepee of their 
fathers; thus affording, in a noble, well-meant charity an 
easy temptation to these girls to become the unlawful prey 
of white men. Very young Indian girls have been appropri- 
ated by white men, which they termed "taking a chicken." 
Squaws are regarded as property when in the possession of 
white men, who occasionally have fought to the death upon 
interference with their squaws. White men often beat 
these poor creatures cruelly, and, upon leaving the country, 
usually desert them, when they are forced to go back to 
their tribe, with their half-breed progeny. The squaws are 
inclined to join the Indians once a year, when they assemble 
on some favorite fishing grounds, to fish and participate in 
a season of dissipation, when the utmost license is practiced. 
At the present time the squaws are deteriorating in health 
from association with white people. In some localities the 
Indians are rapidly becoming exterminated from the ravages 
of loathsome diseases, and from a lack of care and proper 
medical treatment. 

'Tis bad for Whiskey is the ruin of the squaws; white men 
them. give them this intoxicant, and thus they be- 

come easy victims to their vilest moods. 

In the suburb of Dawson are a number of squaw-men 
living with their squaw or half-breed companions. A few 
are respectable families, but some half-breed squaws 
present, through their association with white men, most 
disgusting spectacles. A fairly good looking half-breed 
girl was seen in Dawson one Sunday morning in company 



174 

with a white man. He had his arm about her waist and was 
attempting to drag her to a near-by saloon. She wore no 
head covering, and her face wore an expression of abject 
misery, as she struggled to escape from him, all the while 
pleading, " Let me go; I feel sick, and I want to go home." 
He persuaded, "Come along with me." "No, I can't," she 
answered. He replied angrily, '' Then you want to go with 
someone else, I see it, you want to get away with someone 
else." He finally succeeded in pulling her into the saloon in 
the hope of giving her whiskey to stimulate her to the in- 
dulgence in whatever dissipation his brutal instinct might 
suggest. His failure to perceive that her pathetic appeal 
was from pain and weakness, and from no other cause, 
certainly betokened in him a most vile and brutal nature. 
The stage- It is a matter of history that just over on the 
struck set. American side some men, of well-known repu- 
tation, joined others less reputable in a most peculiar pro- 
ceeding, the details of which are not obtainable. Two Indian 
girls, named Netto and Gola, were made drunk and were 
taken to a sand pile, where a stage was improvised, but 
without dressing-room or curtain. A vaudeville show was 
extemporized, in which the audience were performers and 
the performers were audience interchangeably. There were 
athletics, there was comedy tinged with reality, and tragedy 
tempered by misgiving, and living pictures that the sun 
stayed awake all night to blush over. Although there was 
no curtain to fall when the actors yielded up the appearance 
of life, the play was merged into a sombre tableau- 
Emblems of the church were improvised and the unconscious 
bodies were decorated with funeral lights. So delighted 
were these actor-miners with the result of their own re- 
sourceful daring, they aspired to live it all over again, and 
a miners' meeting was called for a mock trial. A well- 



175 

known M. D., whose name decorates the records of a great 
in?titution in one of our largest cities, presided, and the 
mock trial was undertaken for the further amusement of 
these men, who had dared an original attempt at theatricals 
on the Mighty Yukon; an event which marked an era in its 
dramatic history. 

He ponders The squaw-man has made himself a squaw- 
yet, man, and usually retrogrades by such in- 
fluence. While the little he teaches his squaw of neatness 
and usefulness may be good, he also thus prepares her to 
suffer from the cruelty of his ultimate desertion. Upon the 
whole, his record is not creditable. There are exceptions — 
as in the case of a man whom I will call San Sangson, who 
has accumulated a fortune by freighting with dog- teams and 
horses, which, as a business, is surer and more profitable than 
mining. In winter, I visited his low, dingy log cabin, stand- 
ing against a picturesque bluff, around which the Yukon 
sweeps in a majestic curve in summer, and against which 
its broken, icy barriers are piled, in its last struggle for 
freedom, at the approach of winter. The one room, kitchen, 
bed-room and living-room for the whole family, was in 
a state of disorder. One child lay dead in the house of a 
neighbor. A girl of fourteen was lying in a bunk in one 
corner, ill with typhoid fever; the other children were jump- 
ing and playing noisily. The freighter and his squaw sat 
weeping upon a roll of bedding on the floor. The front of 
the cabin was decorated with great masses of harness, hung 
upon pegs. Dogs howled about the door. In a tent, close 
against the cabin, a dozen horses were stabled. It was 
easy to understand why the whole family had been stricken 
with typhoid fever during the summer, 



176 




Squaw-man and His Family. 



And this 
one knows. 



Sangson knows something of law, and 
though a Dane or a Russian, can read and 
write English. When asked as to prices for freighting, he 
will not answer verbally but goes home and writes a letter, 
which he delivers personally. When business differences 
arise, he seeks his adversary at his home or on the street, 
and will question and cross-examine him. A man at his el- 
bow is his "witness." 

Mrs. H., widow of Capt. H. of early days, a fur-trader of 
prominence, is a half-breed, and a woman of wealth and cul- 
ture. Her business ability and distinguished bearing are 
remarked by all who know her. Her sister, Mrs. W., is also 
a woman of culture and fine presence. The Indian women 
are unassuming and gentle in their manners, and have low 
well modulated voices. 

They're The problem of the squaw-man presents 

modest, too. one phase which the new woman would do 
well to consider thoughtfully. A few squaw-men have 



177 

openly avowed their preference for the Indian women over 
white women. Not at all on account of beauty, or charm, 
or intelligence, but because they are obedient and serve 
them faithfully. I interviewed an Indian girl, Tatto, who 
answered my inquiry as to whether she occupied her cabin 
alone, by saying — "Oh, no, I live with my man. He has 
gone to Forty-mile to look after his claim there. I have a 
little baby nine months old, see him in his hammock." I 
went to the tiny hammock swung across one corner of the 
cabin, to which my attention had been directed, and saw the 
little half-breed baby. I said, "Tatto, are you married to 
your man?" She answered, "No, my father will not allow 
me to marry a white man. He thinks when they get money 
they will leave the Indian girl. I was out to the coast to 
Chilkat to see my people this summer. My man told me to 
come back so I did. I used to be in the mission at Sitka, 
but as soon as I came out I went to live with my man. He 
used to be around Juneau seven years, but he said he never 
knew any Indian girl but me." "Tatto, do you love your 
man and would you like to stay with him?" I asked. "Oh 
2/es," she answered earnestly. "Does your man love you, 
Tatto?" I continued, "I dont know" she answered, hesitat- 
ingly, "he never says.". Tatto is twenty years old. Her 
cabin is neat, though containing few articles for either use 
or ornament. 

We know Thus is presented an object lesson for the 

loo much. j^g^ woman. Man in his necessity turns 

to the savage tribes for the obedience and unobtrusiveness 
of our grandmothers. This may be the dawning of an era 
when the pale-face woman will be left alone to coldly nour- 
ish her bicycle and her typewriter, while the Indian girl be- 
comes the mother of statesmen and of financiers. 

The white men who like squaws dislike the affectation and 



178 

pretense of white women, and the inclination some evince to 
take unfair advantage of the favor of men. Indians despise 
the selfish and vain ways of white people, and call them "pale 
trash." It devolves upon the new woman either to educate 
man to relinquish somewhat of his authority, or to lose some 
of him. The Yukon country affords pitiable illustrations of 
the desire for authority over others on the part of some 
men, who as a rule, are not especially able to govern them- 
selves. First, in the intermarriage, or co-mingling, with 
squaws, and again in the free use of money to command, and 
in a sense own, a certain authority over disreputable women. 
If the dissipations of men were limited to the single item of 
sensual pleasure, it would be reduced 75% at once. The 
great and ruling passion with men in the Northland is the 
display of wealth and power. 

They're found Indians are found in spots throughout the 
in spots. Northland. As the Indians are migratory, 

those spots are difficult to locate permanently. Their his- 
tory is not easy to discover and record. The Indian village 
of to-day may be the primitive forest, or deserted shore of 
next year, with never a sign of human life. The Indian has 
gone to new fishing or hunting grounds, and carried his his- 
tory with him. Upon discovery of an Indian village it is 
difficult to learn whence its inhabitants came, or whither 
they will go. Much more diflicult is it to guess where the 
Indians of several generations ago migrated from, or where 
they went upon disappearing. The Innuits, on the Eastern 
coast of Siberia, have something of the appearance of Japan- 
ese, and may have found their way northward from the Pac- 
ific Islands. At present they frequently cross Behring 
Strait in boats, and camp on the western shore of Alaska. 
Yukon Indians appear much like the Innuits, and are found 
in various camps the entire length of the Yukon and its trib- 



179 

utaries. A small tribe is encamped on Lake Labarge, a few 
on Lake Marsh, and a few near the north end of Tagish Lake. 
The Aleuts are found along the southwesterly coast of 
Alaska on the Aleutian Islands. About Pyramid Harbor, 
Sitka, Fort Wrangel, from Kodiak to Vancouver Island, are 
found, besides the Aleuts, the Sitkas, Hoonas, Chilkats, 
Stikines, Fort Wrangels, Thlinkets and Hydah Indians. All 
similar in appearance to the Innuits or Siberian Esquimaux. 
They are short, fat, have broad, good-natured faces, greasy 
skin and shiny black hair. They eat blubber, fish oil, dried 
fish, and flour, tea and sugar as they can get them from the 
white traders. The home of the Innuit is called a topek. 
The winter topek is made by setting walrus ribs upright for 
the sides, about a circular base; other walrus ribs are placed 
above against the center which forms the support for a 
roof. Sods or dirt are banked against the sides and upon 
the roof, supplemented by a heavy coating of snow in winter. 
The topek is heated by means of an improvised oil lamp. 
No cooking is required, as the food of the Esquim-aux has 
been previously prepared. The Esquimaux has no regular 
hours for eating or sleeping, but follows his inclinations in 
these matters. The summer topek of the Innuits is made 
by placing walrus skins stretched upon frames so as to form 
a kind of tent or house. Occasionally a piece of canvas or 
or a tent is used. 

Of boards The home of the Aleuts is called a barabara, 

and sods. and is built of dirt or of pieces of wood, 

with the walrus skins stretched on the frame, or of any odd 
pieces of boards they may be able to obtain. The Aleuts, as 
do also the tribes further south, have what is called a sweat- 
house, adjoining their homes. To this sweat-house the 
Indian repairs for his bath, which is taken by means of 
throwing heated rocks into a small pool of water in the 



180 




Yukon Indian Girls— Grass for baskets drying, also gashed pieces of 
salmon. Behind the tallest girl is the door of their barabara or sod-house. 

sweat-house. The compartment is nearly air-tight and a 
dense steam is generated, which causes profuse perspira- 
tion. After this steaming the Indian at once repairs to a 
stream or sea near by and applies cold water, or snow, to 
his body, rubbing briskly. This is considered proper treat- 
ment in either acute sickness or chronic ill-health. In cases 
of pneumonia, they die about four hours after the treatment. 
The life of the Indian is passed in a monotonous effort to 
secure necessary food, and the furs to protect him from 
winter's cold. His life is peaceful; he has neither politics 
nor religion. His social life may remain in a state of de- 
suetude for years, but when he has social aspirations history 
is made. Occasionally it becomes tragedy, as in the case 
of the Hall Islanders who traded their furs to some whalers 
for whiskey. The whole tribe got drunk 

^, and spent the remainder of the summer in 

to starve. , , , , , , . 

debauchery and revelry, neglecting to pro- 



181 

vide the necessary dried fish and oil as food for winter. 
When the whalers returned the following summer the entire 
tribe had perished from starvation. This, however, is not 
the usual society event among these Indians. 

The Alaska Indians have been completely isolated from 
civilization until quite recently. It is hardly possible that 
any of them ever heard an account of the Bradley-Martin 
ball, or of any of the " affairs" of the Vanderbilts or Astors; 
hence the unique and elaborate social triumph called the 
"potlatch" must be original with them. A potlatch is of 
rare occurrence, but in this entertainment the Indian may 
fairly claim a superiority over the white man in social enter- 
tainment. 

He does The Indian does not care for political honors 

not care. or to be a spiritual leader and adviser of his 
tribe. He doesn't care for bonds, or mortgages, or incomes, 
or estates. All creation is his, anyway. His future food 
supply is swimming around in near by waters, taking care of 
itself, and his future wardrobe is roaming about in the for- 
est, or up in the mountains, and he has only to appropriate 
what he needs to his own use; which places him, in a way, 
on a level with royalty. His one ambition is to be able to 
give a potlatch. To do that he must possess wealth equiv- 
alent to from two to five thousand dollars. He may, by a 
laborious process, carve a totem pole, stain it in gaudy col- 
ors, and have it ready to be erected upon the occasion of the 
potlatch, as a monument which will distinguish him as the 
giver of that function and the owner of the pole. 

Preparations for a potlatch consist in invi- 
" ** ^'" • tations which are sent some months in ad- 
vance to the neighboring tribes, by heralds. A council 
house, or large hall, is erected, and the royal host proceeds 
to invest his entire wealth in blankets, beads and ornaments. 



182 

A huge pit has been previously filled with fish heads and por- 
tions of fish and blubber and, by a natural process, the oil, 
with the concentrated essence and aroma of the fish, rises 
to the surface in a ''salmon-scented" tribute to the occa- 
sion. The day before a potlatch, squaws and Indian maidens 
prepare the banquet, upon which occasion the guests are 
permitted to dip their food in the oil as a salad, relish, con- 
fection or bouquet. The toilet of the Indians, upon the occa- 
sion of the potlatch, consists of bright-colored blankets, 
feathers, beads, necklaces of walrus teeth and turbans of 
brilliant feathers; their faces are smeared with bright- 
colored paints, large rings are suspended from their noses 
and ears. Scalps and tomahawks do not figure in these 
entertainments. Members of the tribe of him who enter- 
tains greet the neigboring tribes as they arrive in their 
canoes, or by land, with a dance of welcome. Then all pro- 
ceed to the council house or hall, where some special dances 
occur. These are not skirt dances, nor clog dances, nor 
even the cake walk, but consist of a variety of contortions 
which are said to recur in definite order. 
He's The giver of the potlatch makes a damatic 

introduced. stage entrance, wrapped in a huge bear- 

skin, or in white drapery, according as his fancy may direct 
a disguise. After a season of acting or performing by 
the host, a speech or toast is offered by an attendant. 
The host then nerves himself for the occasion, and expands 
in a dearly-bought pride, and in a glorious sense of his own 
importance, as he proceeds to give his entire wealth away 
to the guests assembled; disposing of all the blankets, 
beads, red cotton cloth and gew-gaws that he has impov- 
erished himself to purchase. The guests, after receiving 
the presents in silence, go away. If they are not pleased 
with the gifts, they will not return. Hence the giver of a 



183 

potlatch may part with his all and yet not be honored; if 
his guests return the potlatch is a success, and a general 
rejoicing follows. The Indians join in a wild revelry and 
with various contortions, moaning, groaning, jumping and 
kicking, this is continued, with almost superhuman effort, 
for a great length of time, or until the dancers fall down 
exhausted. 

'Tis over The next day a feast is given, and the pot- 
now, latch is over. The visiting tribes return to 
their homes, the entertainers lay aside their best clothes, 
remove the rings from their noses, wash off the war paint 
with a rag saturated in the same fish oil they had for salad, 
and every-day life is resumed. 

The giver of the potlatch is now a poor Indian and may 
become a dependent upon his tribe, but he has gained a cer- 
tain caste by having given a successful potlatch. It is not 
known if this acquisition of caste benefits the Indian partic- 
ularly, or increases his credit or authority. It does not aid 
him in borrowing a dollar when he has no prospect of pay- 
ing, and his word in locating a boundary line, or in dividing 
the season's catch of fish or furs, is of no more value than 
any other Indian's. His condition is similar to that of the 
giver of a civilized entertainment, only the Indian sacrificed 
his all to give the potlatch, and he made his guests useful 
presents. His guests received a substantial compensation 
for their sacrifice of time and effort in honoring their host. 
The white man's entertainment is given from his abundant 
means, and without sacrifice to himself. His guests assemble 
to do him honor and are required to pay their own carriage 
hire, while their refreshments and favors are of compar- 
atively small value. 

He has The Indians usually have a vague idea of a 

no creed. future life and of a great Spirit, but, with 



184 

the exception of one idol, which was erected by the Hydahs 
against a tree in a forest at Klakwan, and before which 
human beings were sacrificed, no Indian religious or pagan 
ceremonies have been widely advertised. 

TOTEMISM. 

Indians are somewhat deficient in sentiment, and their 
imaginations are not active in the direction of spiritual 
things. They have not the civilized man's reverence for 
authority, either with or without adequate reason. Hence 
religion fits them as a parasitic growth rather than as a 
natural development. The Indian's one mental resounce and 
unique accomplishment is in a peculiar habit of mind, known 
as totemism. 

The swellest The Indian four-hundred is represented by 
set. the tribe of the Hydahs. The Newport of 

the Hydahs is situated on Queen Charlotte's Island. The 
earliest voyagers in Northern waters were astonished upon 
discovering, at this place, the homes of these aristocratic 
Hydahs. Their cottages and mansions are solid structures, 
built of heavy, hewn logs and planks neatly mortised. The 
roofs are supported by rafters and covered with shakes. In 
front of these buildings stand immense totem poles, forty 
and fifty feet high, covered from top to bottom with curious 
carved figures. Queen Charlotte's Island produces a black 
slate, sections of which are beautifully carved in unique de- 
signs, closely resembling ancient Egyptian sculptures. The 
Sheldon-Jackson Museum in Sitka contains a complete col- 
lection of these slate carvings; scientists who have seen it 
express a belief that the makers of these curios emigrated 
to Alaska from another section of the globe. It is not 
stated what part of the world is favorable to the develop- 
ment of skill in slate carving. The Egyptian and Central 




1. Potlatch of the Klakwan Indians. The dance of welcome. 
a. The an-ival of visiting tribes in canoes. 




t3 a 
WE 

(D to 



m:3 

^0 



I ^ 



187 



American carvers may have emigrated from Alaska. Totem 
poles are found at Queen Charlotte's Island, Prince of Wales' 
Island, Sitka, Wrangel and at various other places, but are 
not common north of Prince of Wales' Island. The rigorous 
climate of the north does not admit of leisure and of out-of- 
door employment in carving the poles, and there is also a 
lack of timber for such use. 

We do not There are various theories as to the origin and 
know. meaning of totem poles; the Indians them- 

selves do not know, as a totem pole means one thing to one 
Indian and another thing to another. In one instance it 
stands for tribal or social alliances, again it may represent 
a death, an accident or other remarkable event. The figures 
upon a totem pole are neither of humankind, nor of animals, 
nor of birds, but are most remarkable combinations. Oc- 
casionally the form of an animal is fairly well defined, or a 
human face or head is outlined, but the figures are more 
frequently combinations of bird, beast and human features. 
It is evident from a study of many poles, that the totems 
are a result of the Indian's recognition of a certain affinity 
he bears to the animal kind; -sometimes amounting to the 
deifying of a certain animal, as his ancestor. His son-in- 
law, whom he disliked, he might designate on his totem pole 
as a frog; his old maid neighbor, as a raven; while his ally 
and good friend would be a mallard. The man whose pot- 
latch he had attended would be a whale. 
They are so No one, who has ever seen these totems on 
queer. their native soil, can deny that they have a 

weird, uncanny influence that amounts to a spell. 



188 

CAPE NOME, 



The first news of the Cape Nome gold discoveries reached 
Dawson in the spring of 1899, and was hailed with delight 
by the disappointed miners who had struggled unsuccess- 
fully against fearful odds in the Yukon territory. 

With the opening of navigation little parties of these 
unfortunate men embarked in scows and in small boats for 
the long trip of 2,000 miles, from Dawson down the Yukon 
to Nome. Varying reports continued during the summer, 
until August the news of the beach diggings caused a 
stampede to Nome. It was too late to attempt the journey 
in small boats, hence every ticket that steamboat companies 
would issue was sold long before river boats arrived from 
below. These boats, upon their arrival, were quickly un- 
loaded and were off with such crowds of human freight as 
never before ventured upon frail river boats. Beds were 
impossible and men slept on floors, on benches, upon the 
wood pile and about the engine room. 

When a boat was to leave for Nome thousands of people 
crowded the river bank. There was no cheering, and no 
merry good-byes. The departing crowd left silently, and 
the remaining crowd looked silently at the disappearing 
boat, only regretting that they were not of the fortunate 
ones who were going. For hours after the departure of a 
steamer for Nome the crowd would remain about the streets 
in little groups, talking in subdued tones of Nome. There 
was a suppressed excitement until the atmosphere seemed 
to be charged with a magnetism of unrest, as in times of 
war. Men who had neither money nor outfit were willing to 
risk health and comfort, and even life itself, to go to Nome. 
Men who had cabins, and claims, and outfits, were ready to 
leave all to go to Nome. The gamblers and saloon men, 



189 

with the dance-hall girls and women grafters, scented the 
news of gold and a new camp, and promptly stampeded to 
Wome. Others planned to remove business and buildings to 
Nome. Dawson will be depopulated. The Scarlet Life of 
Dawson has already dawned in Nome in a roseate promise, 
and will soon be a lurid reality. 1 have spent several 
months in Seattle and in San Francisco, studying the Nome 
problem, as to future prospects, from the miners' standpoint 
and from the steamship company's standpoint, and from the 
standpoint of the coast outfitting cities. My conclusions 
are these: 

Nome stands on a treeless, barren, inhospitable shore. 
Fogs and rains, with high winds, prevail in summer, usually 
cold, but with periods of intense heat. The climate is 
extremely unpleasant in winter from severe cold and winds. 
Ships anchor opposite Nome and unload by slow process of 
transferring freight to scows, when the waves are not 
running high to make it dangerous. Nome is built near the 
beach, on what is called the tundra. The beach sands merge 
into the tundra, where the limit of the high tide renders 
vegetation possible; the tundra usually extends several 
miles back to the hills, and is a miry bog of moss and nigger 
heads, and of cesspools of stagnant water. It is a mass of 
filth and decaying vegetation in its natural state, and when 
dug up it emits a horrible smell; this, with the addition of 
the garbage and filth of a town, quickly affords the con- 
ditions for epidemic, malignant typhoid. The filth from the 
tundra seeps into the Snake River and contaminates the 
Nome water supply. The moisture from the tundra is very 
likely to seep through the beach gravel into any wells that 
may be dug, so that escape from its influence is well nigh 
impossible. The tundra is similar to, but worse than, the 
bog flat upon which Dawson is built, and which caused the 



190 

awful epidemic of typhoid there, the extent of which has 
never been estimated. I camped on the bench just below 
the Catholic Hospital in Dawson for two months, and it was 
a surfeit of horror to see the litters pass with the sick and 
dying, and to see the black boxes carried up to the burial 
ground in about the same proportion. Pure water is scarcely 
possible to Nome. A company is organized to bring water 
by means of a wooden conduit from Moonlight Creek, but 
time will be required to complete such a work, and it will 
not be likely to operate in cold weather. 

The stampede to Dawson was a calamity, but Dawson has 
ideal places on the mountain sides and up the gulches for 
cabin homes. There is abundance of wood for cabins and 
for fuel. The climate of the Yukon is incomparably de- 
lightful at all seasons, and its landscape a panorama of 
beauty. In winter the Yukon water is pure, in summer the 
Klondyke water may be used by boiling thoroughly. People 
may escape from Dawson by poling up the rivers in summer, 
if unable to pay steamboat fare, or by a trip over the ice in 
winter. There are blueberries, currants, cranberries, fresh 
vegetables in small qualtities, if one will raise them, moose, 
caribou, ptarmigan, ducks and fish as game; but at Nome 
there is little possibility of either comfort or safety at any 
time, and no reasonable chance of escape except in mid- 
summer. Work is only possible from July 1st to September 
15th, and there will never be transportation for a large 
population to leave Nome after September 15th. Nome 
gold lies on or above the so-called bedrock in creek claims, 
which lies from three to four feet below the surface. The 
gravel and rock from the surface to the bedrock is usually 
thrown into the sluice boxes and washed. The labor of 
mining the Nome creek claims is about equal to sluicing the 
dumps in the Klondyke region, except from lack of sufficient 



191 

water at Nome. The Klondyke miner labors all winter to 
thaw and elevate his pay dirt to the surface of the ground, 
as the bedrock is from twelve to fifty and a hundred feet 
below the surface. The dumps freeze solid. The Nome 
miner is enabled to rest all the winter, while the Klondyke 
miner must work. The Klondyke miner sluices his dump, 
while the Nome miner sluices his pay dirt directly. 

By industrious inquiry, and exhaustive clippings from 
papers, I have found upon authority that ought to be reli- 
able :— That the original discovery of gold on Anvil Creek 
was by twelve different men. That gold is found on a great 
number of creeks, also that gold has only been discovered 
on Anvil, Snow and Dexter Creeks, these being short gulches 
almost devoid of water and affording but few claims. That 
the pay streak is very rich, also that the pay streak does 
not compare with Eldorado in the Y. T. but, from the fact 
that the pay streak is near the surface, a large quantity of 
dirt can be handled at small expense, yielding a larger net 
return in a given time by a given number of men. That 
the beach diggings were discovered by Indians, also that 
they were discovered at various times by different white 
people. That the coarse gold is near the water's edge. 
That the coarse gold is near the tundra. That the pay 
streak on the beach is twenty-five feet wide. That the pay 
streak on the beach is five hundred feet wide. That gold is 
found on the beach for a distance of several hundred miles. 
That gold is only found on the beach between Nome and a 
point opposite Sledge Island, about fifteen miles to the west- 
ward, with several barren spaces within that limit. That 
thousands of men cannot exhaust the beach gold in a life- 
time. That the beach diggings are now practically exhaus- 
ted. That the beach diggings are the the poor man's dig- 
gings. That the poor man who digs on the beach can only 



192 

make wages. That two men have rocked seven thousand 
dollars in thirty days. That two men averaged two hundred 
dollars a day each for a month. That all the beach diggers 
made at least fifteen hundred dollars. That many beach 
diggers made little. That some beach diggers made noth- 
ing. That J. H. Lewis reports from Washington, over his 
own signature, that he cannot secure for the miners the 
right to control the beach. That he cannot resist the pres- 
sure brought to bear to place the beach in charge of the 
military. That the military last summer arrested the miners 
and attempted to prevent them from working on the beach. 
That the military had no means of sheltering and confining 
the army of beach diggers after they arrested them. That 
That the military underwent the humiliation of being com- 
pelled to discharge the beach diggers. That the military 
haven't forgot what happened last summer. That when the 
military have authority to make their acts effective they 
may ask commerce to go around by another route to accom- 
date the miners. Also that the military may clear the beach 
for the benefit of commerce. That Nome gold w^as really 
gold from the Klondyke. That no gold was shipped from 
Nome. That three million dollars in gold was shipped from 
Nome, That Nome is so easily accessible from civilization 
by ships as to make the cost of living very low. That fresh 
meat in Nome was $2.50 a pound in summer, lodging $3.00, 
pancakes 50c a piece, coal $100 a ton, and lumber $200 a 
thousand. 

From averaging reports, and from the careful, detailed 
report of an exceptionally reliable man, whose name I cannot 
give, as he was to go to New York in the employ of transporta- 
tion companies to manage a Cape Nome information bureau, 
I believe the conclusion may be assumed: — 

That some work was done on Anvil Creek resulting in a 



193 

profit to Lane, Price, Linderburg, Lindebloom, Bostrum and 
others, of from twenty-five thousand to two hundred thous- 
and dollars each. That three million dollars was taken from 
the beach. That the value of the tundra and of creeks 
other than those mentioned above is unknown, but that the 
tundra will prove as good as the beach. That every square 
foot of ground from the beach to the mountains, and prob- 
ably to the Arctic Coast, beach, creek, tundra, mountains 
and plain is staked. That the stampeder will sail to the 
Northland on one of the ships that are advertised to land at 
Nome, but which land in Behring Sea, opposite Nome. When 
he, with his outfit has been lightered ashore, he may find the 
military guarding that shore in the interests of commerce. 
That the tundra has been platted in town lots, which are 
owned by individuals. If he would set his tent, which the 
outfitters have advised him to travel with, he will find these 
boggy lots are valued at from one to ten thousand dollars 
each. He may rent a little square of the great golden 
Northland, large enough for his tent, at from five to ten dol- 
lars a month, as he did when he stampeded to Dawson in 1898. 
He may, for a consideration, induce the military to include 
him in the interests of commerce sufficiently to admit of his 
camping on the beach. When he raises his tent the over- 
head conditions will be agreeable except for rain, but under- 
neath will be an oversupply of moisture. His blankets will 
soon be wet, his clothing will be wet, his food supplies will 
be wet, aud the wind will blow against the tent, and salt 
spray from the sea will mingle with the mist from above in 
a damp condition that will prepare him for an attempt at 
prospecting or rocking all day while standing in water to 
his knees — if— he is fortunate enough to find that the inter- 
ests of commerce admit of his working on the beach, or if 
he succeeds in getting a lay on some other man's claim. 



194 

The outfitters advise men not to go north to work for 
wages. If they would prospect they will soon be found cal- 
culating how far they can travel over the tundra and hills, 
and exist upon the amount of food they can carry with 
them fromNome, and how they can safely store their outfits 
left behind, A man can carry thirty-five pounds on such a 
trip, possibly fifty pounds. He requires a blanket, a pick 
and a shovel. He requires at least three pounds of food a 
day, hence what he can carry will provide for a trip of 
about ten days. He is three, four or more days distant from 
unstaked ground, and his prospecting tours are not apt to 
be a success, as he will be compelled to spend from six to 
eight days on the trail, to provide food at the scene of the 
prospecting for from two to four days work; water is scarce 
and he will be delayed in carrying water with which to pan 
the dirt he is prospecting. 

The outfitter advises a certain list of articles as food. It 
is easy for the stampeder in civilization to rise from a din- 
ner of roast beef and potatoes and go to an outfitting com- 
pany and buy beans and bacon for breakfasts, dinners and 
suppers during a stay of long months in the Northland. But 
to eat such food without fresh meat, vegetables, milk, fish 
and fresh fruits month after month, is very different, es- 
pecially as cooking is done under unfavorable circumstances, 
and often by those who are incompetent to do such work. 
To maintain health under those circumstances in any climate 
is practically impossible. It may be well for the stampeder 
to take one-twentieth of the year's food and with his tent 
and camp outfit, go out upon some boggy swamp and remain 
two weeks; drinking the swamp water and endeavoring to 
sustain life with food prepared by his own hands. Let him 
see how the experiment agrees with his constitution. Such 
an experiment would be likely to result in a change of plans 



195 

by the stampeder, as to his outfit. The bacon and beans are 
cheap and may be taken. Beans are easily destroyed by 
dampness and it would be useless to transport beans to 
the Alaska seacoast in canvas sacks. The same may be said 
of other foods. The miner's outfit should include a liberal 
supply of the best brands of canned meats. Evaporated 
potatoes may be cooked in a hash with canned sausage, as a 
staple to alternate with beans and bacon. Canned roast mut- 
ton in small cans, and boned chicken and turkey are very 
valuable. The miner should provide two pounds of butter, 
four pounds of sugar, three or four cans of condensed milk, 
and two cans of best-grade tomatoes for each man per week, 
Lima beans are valuable. A can of best grade of canned 
corn added to two quarts of Lima beans cooked but not 
broken, with one-fourth can of condensed milk and a little 
sugar, makes a palatable food to alternate with beans and 
bacon, and is easily prepared. Evaporated green peas are 
valuable if used properly. To one quart of the green peas 
add three pints of cold water and salt to taste, add half a 
milk can of cubes of sliced bacon, the same quantity of 
cubes of bologna or summer sausage, one teaspoonful of 
beef extract, one-fourth milk can evaporated celery. Evap- 
orated leeks or onions may be added in small quantity, and a 
few evaporated parsnips. Stew until the peas are cooked 
but not broken, keep the peas well covered with water, the 
soup should be clear when served. This soup may be warmed 
over, and will keep several days in cold weather. Beef extract 
should be included in a miner's outfit, also malted milk tab- 
lets for use in case of sickness. Plenty of summer sausage 
but no dried beef, except in cans. Summer sausage in cans 
is best for all use excepting pea soup. Pilot bread is useless 
except in case of threatened starvation. Edam cheese is a 
good investment, also tin boxes of good crackers. Canned 



196 

oysters and clams should be avoided but canned clam juice 
is very useful. Canned fruits are indispensibe. The best 
brands are cheapest. Peaches that cost at the outfitters 
twelve and fifteen cents a can are usually worth seventy- five 
cents and a dollar a can .in Northern camps and require the 
addition of one-half pound of sugar at thirty cents, but when 
served in the miner's cabin have not one-tenth the value of 
peaches put up in sugar syrup that cost twenty-five and 
thirty cents outside. All brands of canned goods should be 
tested by opening one can; great precaution in their selec- 
tion should be exercised. Outfitters, as a rule, sell very in- 
ferior brands of canned goods to miners. Canned pineapple 
is the most satisfactory of the outfitters' canned fruit. It is 
possible to buy canned peaches, apricots, greengages and 
other fruits in sugar syrup, that are valuable. Only the best 
brands of butter, baking powder, yeast and soap should be 
taken. Beware of the outfitters' unknown brands that are 
" just as good." If the stampeder does not know the differ- 
ence between cane sugar and beet sugar, he should seek 
enlightenment. Also as to varieties of tea and coffee. A 
full and complete list of medicine and of useful drugs is in- 
dispensible as a part of a miner's outfit. These articles and 
the luxuries mentioned are a source of vast profits to local 
dealers, as many items which are considered luxuries here 
become positive necessities before the miner has progressed 
for any considerable time in his life remote from civilization. 
His stomach will refuse the beans and bacon, and baking 
powder or sour-dough bread, and his system will rebel in a 
true scurvy, and the miner will spend his last dollar for fresh 
meat, or for canned tomatoes or fruits. 

The packages comprising a miscellaneous outfit should 
be properly packed for shipment, under the supervision of 
the owner, and should be identified as the articles he bought. 



197 

which will prevent the great disappointment and possible 
loss occasioned by substituting inferior grades of goods, les- 
ser quantities, or by a failure to send part of the goods which 
sometimes occurs in the case of careless or dishonest outfit- 
ters. Boxes should be bound with wire. 

Three hundred gallons of distilled water would be val- 
uable, and would afford the miner two gallons each day for 
five months. Six hundred gallons as a year's supply would 
be better, as the water from Moonlight Creek may be impure 
and may be too expensive by the gallon. The company may 
also fail to convey that water to Nome by means of a wooden 
conduit. 

Another accessory to a Nome outfit, is a metallic burial 
casket. It may be needed for the return trip, if not needed 
it can readily be sold at a large profit to some one who does 
need it. 

If the stampeder takes with him a complete outfit of 
food supplies, clothing, fuel, house, drugs and medicines, 
tools and machinery, he will provide for himself econom- 
ically. By his neglect he will enrich the Nome dealer. 

If he buys stocks in syndicates and in companies, he will 
have prospects and a costly experience. When corporations 
and mines are known to be rich the stock is not sold cheap 
to strangers. There is no case on record of a poor stock- 
holder being raised to affluence by sudden expansion of his 
Northern mining stock. The promoters of such schemes sell 
prospects for money. 

Even when all is said the prospects at Nome will prove 
sufficiently alluring to tempt the venturous stampeder to 
leave civilization, and to dare even death, in a search for 
gold! He will try to make his way across the tundra. He 
will sink into the mud and water to his knees, pulling one 
foot out by a strenuous effort then struggle to get the other 



198 

foot free, falling over bogs, and with no place to sit down 
and rest. When some man, with a concession or an exclu- 
sive right, builds a road across the tundra, he will pay his 
toll of from one to five dollars, and will roam beyond the 
hills looking at the claims of other men. He will be cold 
and wet, and tired and hungry, and on every hand will find 
that means to relieve his discomfort are only obtained by a 
sacrifice of a large amount of money. When he turns to the 
transportation company that painted the trip to him in such 
glowing colors, inducing him to go to Nome, he will find 
these companies have been working a clever scheme. When 
they have a large number of people at Nome they have them 
in a trap. If they would get out they must pay what the 
company demands. Last year in Dawson there was no fixed 
price as fare to Lake Bennett. If two or three boats were 
loading, or large numbers going down the river, the fare 
was forty dollars and fifty dollars. If there was but one 
boat, and many passengers, the fare was ninety dollars and a 
hundred and twenty dollars. The fare from Seattle to St. 
Michaels by S. S. is usually forty and fifty dollars, but last 
fall the ships charged one hundred and two hundred dollars 
for bringing people from Nome. Passengers who came down 
in October on what is considered the best ship on the route, 
report they were charged two hundred dollars fare. The 
ship was crowded with passengers, so that even halls and 
passages were occupied. The ship sailed from Nome without 
ballast, and a most dreadful sanitary condition prevailed. 
Once at sea a system of grafting was inaugurated by the 
crew. Passengers were required to pay exhorbitant rates 
for attention, and even for necessities. It was estimated 
that the steward made seven thousand dollars on the trip, 
by his successful grafting. 

The schooner Hera left Nome overcrowded with pas- 



199 

sengers, and with an inadequate supply of food, which was 
soon gone, and the water supply exhausted. Several pas- 
sengers died from starvation and exposure, and all suffered 
untold agony from hunger and thirst. The Laurada, with a 
a valuable cargo, went to pieces on a rock off Dutch Harbor; 
it is said that she was unseaworthy when she started. Other 
unseaworthy boats will sail for Nome. The men who want 
the fares of the stampeders will risk loss of life and 
property. 

An outfitting firm in one of the coast cities equipped the 
Jane Grey during the Kotzebue Sound stampede. This boat 
proceeded several hundred miles on her journey, when, with- 
out warning, without stress of storm or tide, she rolled over 
and sank; but four of all those who were on board survived. 
Relatives of those who perished entered into extensive and 
long-continued litigation, in an effort to obtain justice, but, 
by a recent Supreme Court decision, the outfitters were held 
liable only to the amount they received for fares and freight, 
which they succeeded in having estimated at about $6,000. 

The majority of people, who have some knowledge of 
mining and of stampedes, are going to Nome to sell whiskey* 
or to manage dance halls and gambling houses; to build cheap 
buildings and sell them, and to run restaurants and bunk 
houses. One man will build a bridge over Snake River and 
charge 50 cents toll. These people go with schemes to get 
money from the stampeders and from the miners, but not to 
mine. An army of bunco men will go to Nome. The bunco 
man, the saloon man, the gambler and the dance-hall girls 
did not need to mine in Dawson. As soon as the clean-up 
was over the gold all found its way to them. If similar 
conditions prevail at Nome they will be alike successful. 

The laws of the Yukon territory are notoriously inade- 
quate. The strict administration of those laws only tends 




Itut^ %■■ i's-M :i^y^ iiLx. 

■mCrttil SPOT ON EAUTH 






THE FAST BARK 

IHEPP 



R. D. WIDK8, CommaiHllng. 
>r Kotzefue So 
Fields, on Of «tiniii ^ ^ ^ 

MAY 1st. '98 



V^lll Sail for Kotzefue Sound 
(kid 



MENRV L. BORDEN, C-ixoril MinasM 






Sample of boom articles of 1898 after history has been made to demon- 
kte the actual result of such reports. In the case of Kotzebue the result 



strate the actual result of such reports 
was loss of life and property to many. 



201 

to exaggerate their bad qualities. A large number of law- 
yers aim to get people into litigation, and then manage to 
take what they have. Bad as is the business outlook in 
Dawson, Nome does not promise an improved condition. The 
act of the military at Nome in arresting the beach diggers, 
was a Siberian-Canadian-American episode that bespeaks 
more a display of power than of reason. The Canadian offi- 
cials are very careful not to steal or rob, or do any unlawful 
act. The Indian boys were hung legally. The labor of 
prisoners is acquired by process of law. Outfits of spiritu- 
ous and malt liquors are confiscated or retired from active 
use in business by a manipulation of the majesty of the law. 
All is done with dignity, and in order, and effectively. At 
Nome the Americans are more crude in their efforts, it 
would seem, as was evidenced by a circumstance recently 
reported from that camp, by which all the official lights 
were extinguished at once, and by a supreme folly of those 
same officials, who, like the foolish virgins, were barred from 
the glory of Nome, and were led ignominiously to St. 
Michaels by their outraged but unofficial accusers. The 
Chief of Police and his attaches are reported to have been 
caught in the act of stealing whiskey, and were apprehended 
and arrested by the miners. This proves a great lack of re- 
source on the part of the authorities, as they could easily 
have spoken into existence a Sunday closing act, or a 
debtors' prison, with a clause enabling them to confiscate 
the property upon any appearance of violation of the law. 

A prominent Judge has resigned a very important posi- 
tion to practice law in Nome. It is said that a prominent 
lawyer refused the office of High Commissioner of Alaska to 
practice law in Nome. The lawyers will be at Nome with 
the bunco men, the sharpers and the grafters, and woe be 
to the unsuspecting stampeder. 



202 



GLOSSARY OF YUKON TERMS. 



Accuser, the man who has made no 
statement under oath and sits 
by serenely watching the opera- 
tion of the machinery of English 
law at his command in prose- 
cuting, or in persecuting, one 
whom he desires to injure. 

Advocate, an English lawyer, a Bar- 
rister. 

Aliens, Ninety per cent, of the popu- 
lation of the Yukon Territory. 
The ones who do the work and 
pay the royalties and fees. 

A Bonanza King, worth $20,000 to 
$50,000. 

A Klondyke King, worth $500,000 gross. 

A King of the Klondylte, worth $100,000 
to $300,000. 

A Long Pol<e a well-filled gold sack. 
These sacks vary in size from 
two inches wide by eieht inches 
long to four inches wide by four- 
teen inches long, and are made 
of deerskin. 

An Eldorado King, worth from $50,000 
to $100,000. 

Arrest, when an accused person is 
taken to prison. 

A Poke, a sack containing gold dust. 

A Grub-Stake, food sufficient to last a 
season. A "stake" is money 
made or saved 

Barracks, the Dawson Prison with a 
guard-room attachment, and a 
quadrangle, around which are 
log buildings, the quarters of 
soldiers and mounted police. 

Barrister, a Canadian lawyer, 

Bateau, a boat pointed at both ends. 

Bed Rock, a stratum of solid or shaly 
rock, upon which the gold in 
mines is found, and which lies at 
a depth of from five to one hun- 
dred feet below the surface. 



Bench Claim, ground the pay streak 
of which is on a higher level 
than the creek. 

Bunk, a narrow bed made of poles or 
boards, upon which may be laid 
spruce boughs or blankets. 

Canadians, ten per cent, of the popu- 
lation of the Yukon Territory 
who rule and punish the 90 per 
cent, who are aliens. 

Cash In, is when dance-hall girls col- 
lect their commissions at 7 a. m. 

Cache, a small platform, on four 
posts to be above the reach of 
animals. Food supplies are 
placed upon the platform, and 
are covered by a tent or tarpau- 
lin. Sometimes a small house of 
logs, with a dirt roof, is erected 
on the platform, and sometimes 
a Cheechargo boat is sawed 
apart crosswise at the middle, 
and is elevated upon four posts, 
one section forming the floor and 
the other turned upon it for a 
roof. A door with a lock closes 
the open end. The food supplies 
thus stored become the "cache," 
as well as the structure itself. 
All cabins have a cache attach- 
ment, which is an out-of door cel- 
lar. The prospector "caches" his 
provisions when he goes on a 
trip, and returns to his "cache" 
for new supplies. 

Cheechargo, an Indian word meaning 
new comer. 

Checks, tickets given the dance-hall 
girls, good for 25 per cent, of what 
their partner pays for at the bar. - 

Clean-up, when the water is shut off, 
the riffles removed, and the gold 
separated from the remaining 
sand. 

Claim, 250 feet in the Yukon Terri- 
tory, and 1,000 or more feet in 
Alaska, up and down the creek. 



20a 



Colors, small particles of gold found 
upon prospecting. 

Court, the Yukon British rocking 
proposition; fines and penalties 
are its clean-up. 

Criminal, the man who plans his 
crime and seizes upon one of the 
many means at hand to escape 
detection, hobnobs with the po- 
lice and watches them catch the 
fellows guilty of such petty 
offences that they did not realize 
their danger of arrest. 

Cultus, worthless. 

Dead Men, empty or partly filled bot- 
tles of liquor, served and charged 
to patrons a second time, after 
having been paid for once. 

Dome, a rounded mountain top higher 
than others near by. 

Dog Team, a string of from two to 
nine dogs harnessed one before 
the other, and pulling a sled, or 
cart, or other load. 

Dust, gold in small pieces, varying 
from grains the size of a grain of 
sand to pieces weighing several 
pounds. Dust is taken at about 
fifteen dollars per ounce at the 
banks, and at stores in trade for 
about sixteen dollars. 

Dump, a pile or mound of pay d rt. 

Dyea Trail, from Dyea to Canyon City 
over the Chilkoot Pass, down 
Crater. Long and Deep Lakes to 
Lindemann, through the One-Mile 
Canyon to Bennett, down Lake 
Bennett, Caribou Crossing, Ta- 
gish Lake, Six-Mile River, Marsh 
Lake, Fifty-mile River, (in the 
Middle of which is Miles Canyon 
and the White Horse Rapids), 
Lake Labarge, Thirty-Mile 
River Lewis River, Five Finger 
Rapids, Rink Rapids and the Yu- 
kon River to Dawson City, Eagle 
City, Circle, Rampart, Anvil, and 
via Behring Sea to St. Michaels, 



Cape Nome, Cape York and Si^ 
beria. 
Edmonton Trail, across British Co- 
lumbia via the Great Slave Lake, 
Mackenzie River, and down the 
Porcupine to the Yukon. 
God's Country, the Homeland to which 
aliens flee to escape trials and 
persecutions. 
Grafters, people who induce a kind of 
voluntary blackmail, to their 
own profit. 
Grub, food. 

Gulch or Pup, a branch of a creek, 
usually a deep crevice in a moun- 
tain side and only a mile or two 
in length. 
Grant, what the Canadian Grovern- 
ment gives the miner, a lease or 
permit to hold a claim one year 
under certain conditions. 
Judge, the man who administers 

British law to suit himself. 
Klondyke, or Klondil<e. a popular 
name applied to the Troandyke, 
a river emptying into the Yukon 
at Dawson. 
Kyak, a small Indian boat or canoe of 

birch bark. 
Laying an Information, going before a 
Yukon Magistrate, and by a re- 
cital of either suspicions or pre- 
judice causing him to believe 
that someone is committing an 
illegal act. 
Lining a Boat, letting a boat slowly 
down a canyon by means of ropes 
attached to trees or rocks, the 
ropes being loosened gradually. 
Macque, common name for a 
maquerau, a man who derives his 
support from the earnings of a 
prostitute. 
Magistrate, a soldier who hears law 
cases and issues orders to arrest 
people. 
Malamute, a cross between a wolf 
and a dog. 



204 



Moccasins, shoe- made of dressed 
sheepskin, or deerskin, and hav- 
ing no solid soles; insoles of 
several thicknesses of felt are 
required, also two or more pairs 
of extra heavy socks or stockings 
to protect the feet from cold and 
from bruises. 

Muck-a-Muck. an Indian word mean- 
ing food. 

Muck-a-Luck, a boot with a foot like 
a moccasin, made of undressed 
sealskin, and fairly waterproof. 

Mush, to go or get on; mushing, 
going or traveling. 

N. W. M. P., Northwest Mounted Po- 
lice. 

Official Routine, the Yukon British 
sluicing proposition; licenses, 
grants, taxes, fees and royalties 
are its clean-up. 

Outside, the civilized world. 

Outfit, the belongings of an individ- 
ual taken into the country from 
outside. 

Packing, carrying by means of a pack 
taken upon the back by use of 
pack straps; also means carry- 
ing or conveying. 

Parka, a coat of fur or canvas, with 
a hood that comes well over the 
face as a protection from wind 
and cold, worn by both men and 
women. 

Parlor House Girls, girls who live in 
so-called hotels, and, by favor- 
itism, escape the liability to 
fines which the public women in- 
cur. 

Pay Dirt or Pay Gravel, dirt above the 
bed rock that carries gold. 

Pay Streak, the width upon bed rock 
at which pay may be found. It 
is generally from twenty to two 
hundred feet across. 

Poling Boat, a long narrow boat for 
going up stream by poling along 
the shore. 



Proposition, any transaction from a 
dog fight or an underdone pan- 
cake to a mining deal. 

P. I., an outside newspaper. 

Pup, a gulch or branch of a creek. 

Representing, work required of the 
claim owner by the Government. 

Robe, a fur robe eight feet square, of 
lynx, fox, or other fur. costs $100 
to $200, and is used by miners as 
a wrap while sleeping. 

Rocker, a cradle-like box having lit- 
tle riffies m which the pay dirt is 
washed by means of rocking while 
water is poured on the dirt. 

Royalty, Ten per cent, of the gross 
output of mines paid to the Cana- 
dian Government. 

Scow rectangular flat bottom boat. 

Sinking a Sliaft, digging a hole in the 
ground about the size of a hole 
dug for a grave in the States. 

Siwash, a native Indian; Siwash 
dogs are inferior or small mala- 
mutes. 

Skagway Trail, from Skagway over 
the White Pass to its junction 
with the Dyea trail at Bennett. 

Sluicing, washing pay dirt by means 
of a line of sluice boxes having 
riffles or bars in the bottom and 
through which water runs with 
considerable force. 

Sour Dough, an old-timer who has 
been in the country two years or 
more. 

Squaw Man, a white man living with 
an Indian woman. 

Stikine Trail, from Fort Wrangell up 
the Stikine River and Telegraph 
Creek, 200 miles portage to Lake 
Teslin, and down Hootalinqua 
River to Lewis River. 

To "Salt" a Mine, to place gold in the 
dirt, either by use of a gun and 
powder, or by mixing the gold 
with dirt and pasting it upon the 
face of the drift, allowing it to 
freeze, or by throwing gold dust 



205 



into the burning fires in the drift 
to be found by panning, or by 
secretly dropping gold into the 
pan when tests are made. 

The Hearing, when a suspected per- 
son is called upon to prove his 
innocence. 

The Post, the town ; formerly a trad- 
ing post. 

Timber Grant, extending from Dawson 
up the Klondike fourteen miles 
is the exclusive right of Boyle & 
Slavln to cut all the timber in 
that territory, and It is more val- 
uable than a champion's belt. 
Timber grants up the Yukon 
sixty miles are the exclusive 
rights of a few other men, and 
enable them to control the wood 
market and brings the N. A. T. 
Company's coal into demand. 

Trail, w^here men travel, not necessa- 
rily a path or roadway. 

The Woodpile, the Government wood- 
pile in Dawson where prisoners 
are compelled to work out their 
sentences. 



Whitechapel or Oshiwora, Dawson's 

Fifth Avenue, built of long rows 
of red-curtained homes of the 
demimonde. 

Winning Her Out, inducing a public 
woman to become the property of 
one man. 

Wcodslide, a groove on the mountain 
side down which logs are pro- 
jected to the mines, or down 
vvhich the miner brings his sled, 
load of^wood, in a mad slide, 
using his feet braced forward 
against the snow as a brake. 

Yukon English, the officials of Daw- 
son, the lawyers, doctors, mer- 
chants and others who are recog- 
nized by the officials as citizens. 
The Yukon "English" are often 
French, and sometimes Cana- 
dians, and are a distinct people 
from the English as met in the 
States, and from Australians 
and British Columbia English as 
met on the Yukon or elsewhere. 
The mounted Police may be said 
to be subjectively Yukon Eng- 
lish rather than aggressively so. 




PRESS OF BROWN MEESE & CRADDOCK 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



HALF-TONES BY WM. BROWN 
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



THE SCARLET LIEE OF DAWSON 

AND THE 

ROSEATE DAWN OF NOME 



Price 75c. and $1.00 



For Sale by Dealers Canvassing Agents Wanted 

Address 
Mrs. L. Brooks-Vincent, 

Denver, Col. 



The Strange Confessions of a Suicide 

A Story of the Northland 



^^^ By LA BELLE BROOKS- VINCENT ^^^ 



This story embodies the life of the trail, the 
camp, and the mines, and is written true to the con- 
ditions of that peculiar high-wrought life and will be 
published during the next year. 



JOHN BOMPASS??h°e''nor 



STORIES 
RTHLAND 

By LA BELLE BROOKS- VINCENT 

Is a book of short stories founded upon incidents in 
real life, and will be published during the next year. 



THE IVIUSICAL COMPOSITIONS of La Belle Brooks -Vincent 

and of her husband, the late L. 0. Vincent, are in- 
cluded in the Catalogue of the Vincent & Co. pub- 
lications now under the management of the Ideal 
Music Co., successors to Vincent & Co., Wabash 
Avenue, Chicago. Send 6 cents for Vincent & Co.'s 
Catalogue, containing two good ballads " My dear old 
Cottage Home," a contralto song, by L. Brooks-Vin- 
cent, and " My Dolly is my Sweetheart," a juvenile 
ballad, by L. Brooks-Vincent. 

Address 

IDEAL MUSIC CO. 

Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. 



Vincent & Co/s Publications include 

Ballads and Descriptive and Illustrated Songs 



Love in Dreams, Stanton, — L. O. Vincent. Bariton or Contralto. Humming ace. 
optional. 

*Waiting till Papa comes Home, Latnt, — Z. B. Vincent. Sweetly pathetic, descrip- 
tive Song. 

*Way down in Carolina, L. 0. Vincent. Popular Song. Harmonized quartette 
optional. 

I want my Love to love me, Lamb, — L. B. Vincent. 

Sweethearts on the old Plantations, Lamb, — Adler. Good Song. 

Aint you got no home? L^amb,— Adler. Stage hit. 

Queen of the Morning, Lamb, — Vincent Exquisite Irish Ballad. 

Dars Gwine to be Troub, L. O. Vincent Good Coon Song 

All for Thee, Lamb, — L. B. Vincent. Fine Baritone or Contralto Love Ballad. 

Dolly, why dont you grow, Zfl'wZ', — L. O. Vincent. Immensely popular juvenile Song. 

♦Dreaming of Home, Gardner, — L. O. Vincent. A Song of the heart. Chorus 
optional. 

*Elinore, Latnb, — L. O. Vincent. Exquisite Melody. Optional Chorus. 

Old Glory of the Sea, Smith, — llncent. A grand Chorus. 

Topsy-Turvy, Smith. Funniest Children's Semi-Chorus ever written. 

Judge not, Anderson, — Vincent. A grand Baritone Song. 

*Cuban Serenade, LLil bourn — L. O. Vincent. A beautiful Song. 

*My dear old Cottage Home, Lamb, — L. B. Vincent. A charming Contralto Balllad. 

*My Dolly is my Sweetheart, Latnb, — L. B. Vincent. A catchy juvenile Song. 

♦Asleep in the Deep, La?nb, — Petrie. 

Pieces marked with a * are illustrated with original colored lantern slides 

which may be obtained for $1 each colored slide. 

Any piece on the above list may be obtained at present special rates by 

sending \ of the marked price, 25 cents to 

THE IDEAL MUSIC CO., Wabash Ave., Chicago, III. 

SONG BOOKS 

Song Stories, No. 1, Parts I & II. For the Sunday School - - 15c. each 

Song Stories, No. 2. For the Schools. Part I, 128 pp. for lower grades, 

Part II, 128 pp., for the High School and the Home - - 25c. each 

Sweet Song Stor'es, words by Rose Hartwick Thorpe^ music by Z. O. & 
Z. B. Vincent, illustrated by Lulo Thorpe Barnes. Thirty beauti- 
ful Songs finely, illustrated. — Songs embodying the life of Child- 
hood. A valuable book for the Kindergarten and the Home. 
Price $1.50 and 80c. 

Burlesque Nursery Rhymes, set to music 50c. net 

The Witch of the Woods, Z. B. & L. O. Vincent. 

An Operatic Extravaganza for Amateur Musical Societies. Send for circular. 

Ideal Mtjsic Co., Chicago, III. 



J<^ ( 



m 



Illustrated Conversations with Illustrated Songs 



11 be given under the Auspices 
y' ■' *■ Churches, by 



MRS. L. 



leir^S - VINCENT 



ILLUSTK/. ■' CONVEP.SA riONS 

iOOO O.iginal Illuiilrations 



The Great Northland 


The Koyokuk 




The Coast of Alaska 


The Klondyke 




The Aleutian IsSancs 


The Dyea Trail 




Siberia 


The Chilkoot Pass 




Nome 


The White Pass 




The Great Yukon 


The Inland Route 




SUBJECTS >^ 


CONVERSATION 




Gold and the Greed jf Gold 


Great Glaciers of the Northland 


The Scarlet Life o^ Dawson ard 


In the Land of the Midnight Sun 


of Nome 


The Prodigal English 




Totems and Totemism. 


The Poor Man's Propos 


tion 


Northern Indians 


Practical Education 




Miners and Mining Cam.ps 


Practical Religion 




ILLUSTRATED SONGS 




Origina 


Illustrations 




Way down in Carolina 


. L, 0. 


Vincent 


Dreaming of Home 


Gardne/i — L. 0. 


Vincent 


My dear old Cottage Home 


' Lamh—L. B. 


Mncent 


My Dolly is my Sweetheart 


Lawh—L. B. 


Vincent 


Asleep in the Deep 


. Lamb 


—Petrie 


Waiting till Papa comes Home . Lamb — L. B. 


Vincent 


Elinore .... 


Lawh—L. 0. 


Vincent 


Cuban Serenade 


■ LUlhourn — L. 0. 


Vincent 


AA'D 


OTHERS 




For terms 







Address 



MRS. L. BROOKS- VINCENT 

Seattle, Wash. 



